Rembrandt Number Eighteen: The Leiden Collection's Buyer Steps Forward on St John on Patmos

A Rembrandt that sold at Sotheby's last December now has a known owner. The painting is St John on Patmos, and the buyer was Thomas Kaplan, the collector behind the Leiden Collection. The hammer figure was $18 million. It is his eighteenth work by the Dutch master, a count that puts one name alongside a run of paintings by a single artist in a way that few private collections can match. The subject shows the evangelist on the island of Patmos, the setting traditionally tied to the writing of Revelation. For readers who follow the Old Master market, the news is less the price than the answer to who stood behind the paddle, and that the picture has joined a collection built around one of painting's most studied names.

With reporting from ARTnews.