11:01,

YEREVAN, MAY 15, ARMENPRESS. Two rare portraits by Rembrandt, unknown to art scholars and never placed on public display, have been unearthed after 200 years in a UK family’s private art collection, Financial Times reports.

Experts at auction house Christie’s came upon the paintings while carrying out a routine valuation.

The eight-inch-high portraits will now go up for sale at Christie’s showrooms in London on July 6, after going on display in New York and Amsterdam, with an estimated value of £5mn-£8mn for the pair.

Ancestors of the family, whose identity was not disclosed by Christie’s, bought the pair of small-scale oil paintings in 1824, at a Christie’s auction.

Painted just as Rembrandt was establishing a reputation as a sought-after artist, the portraits depict Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and his wife Jaapgen Carels, a couple with family connections to the artist.