Rembrandt Self-Portrait Worth $50M After Being Deemed Authentic

A Rembrandt self-portrait donated to Britain’s National Trust and originally thought to have been created by one of the artist's pupils, is now worth a small fortune after being deemed authentic.

According to a report from the Associated Press, scientific tests have confirmed that a painting featuring the 17th-century European painter, donated by a “wealthy supporter” of the trust, has been found to be worth “tens of millions of pounds.”

While the portrait was deemed genuine by Ernst de Wetering, the world’s leading Rembrandt expert, last year, the National Trust announced Tuesday that eight months of testing to the picture’s paint, signature and wooden panel has confirmed its authenticity. The research, conducted by Cambridge University experts, via X-rays and an analysis of the painting’s wooden panel cell structure, found that the picture's pigments and wood panels-- poplar or willow-- were similar to those used by the artist.

The painting, reportedly created in 1635 when Rembrandt was 29, is now reportedly worth 30 million pounds (approximately $50 million).

The piece is reportedly forbidden from being sold by the trust’s mandate. The art currently resides in the National Trust-owned Buckland Abbey, the former home of Francis Drake, a 16th-century seafarer, in Yelverton, Devon.

In 2010, the historical item was donated by Edna, Lady Samuel of Wych Cross, whose husband was a Dutch and Flemish art collector.