Last week Sotheby’s auctioned a Rembrandt self portrait. It did not go as intended. 1632 there were no batteries, and they would not last that long in the frame. Of his 600 paintings around 40 had the subject of ‘moi’, but as Oliver Barker points out, only 3 of those are in private collections, and therefor – unless weird things happen – the only ones on the market. This particular one shows the painter at the age of 26. 22 years younger than its auctioneer.
However: It did not move.
While it sold after rather tedious 395 sounds, it was only 12.6 million pounds that the auction house could get for it for its client.
EDIT:
I was confused, since the number in the NY Times:
was 14.5 and not the 12.6 documented by YouTube. Of course I suspected that Scott Reyburn would be bad at math. Which shows more about my attitudes towards people who actually can write, than to what is going on, and how that relates to how little I actually know: The number that the auctioneer says is what the seller receives. The buyer however has to pay a premium to the auction house as well. Which at this price explains the added 15%.