MADAM – I believe the Susanna and the Elders (above right) sold at the Swiss Old Masters’ sale (ATG No 2292, p4) to be the very painting that I had in 1979 at my Euro Art Centre in Holland.
This painting, with documentation, was brought to me by descendants of Antwerp art historian Prof Max Rooses, who depicts the huge panel in his book Rubens’ Leben und Werke. I still have the massive gold-blocked velour-backed tome he published in 1890.
Back in 1979 I had other museum-quality works by Dutch, Flemish and Spanish 17th Century masters, some from private collectors. Robert Noortman [art dealer and TEFAF Maastricht co-founder] came up to see Susanna… and we thought it a studio work rather than an autograph work, and without question not a later ‘school’ copy.