Thomas Kaplan Revealed as Buyer of $9m Rembrandt 'St John on Patmos'

Key facts

• Thomas Kaplan, owner of the Leiden Collection, bought Rembrandt's St John on Patmos for £6.75m ($9m) at Sotheby's in December.
• The purchase is the 18th Rembrandt painting acquired by Kaplan's collection in the past two decades.
• Two months after the purchase, Kaplan sold Rembrandt's drawing Young Lion Resting (around 1638-42) for nearly $18m at Sotheby's in February.
• Proceeds from the drawing sale created an endowment for the Panthera organisation, supporting big cat conservation.
• St John on Patmos (around 1661) was last exhibited in 1923 and known only from a poor black-and-white photograph until recently.
• In 1904, the painting was attributed to Carel Fabritius and sold for $160; in 1913, Wilhelm Valentiner bought it for $525, recognising it as a Rembrandt.
• The painting was seized by the Nazis in 1940, restituted to Fritz Thyssen in 1950, and sent to Buenos Aires before his death in January 1951.
• Cleaning and conservation revealed the painting depicts St John at Patmos, not Titus, with a palm tree and eagle in the background.
• Arthur Wheelock, a 17th-century Dutch specialist advising Kaplan, says the Sotheby's attribution is fully accepted by all specialists.
• The Leiden Collection will announce a European exhibition for autumn 2027, including St John on Patmos, its first public showing since Sotheby's.