Rediscovered Rembrandt work to be sold

A rediscovered painting of an old woman by Dutch master Rembrandt will go on sale in January in New York, Sotheby’s auction house said Wednesday.

“Virtually forgotten by scholars, the present work has not been illustrated or exhibited publicly since the 1930s,” Sotheby’s said of the painting, “Portrait of an Elderly Woman in a White Bonnet,” dating from around 1640.

The auction house has an estimate of $3 million to $4 million for the work, the highlight of its Jan. 26 and 27 sale of old master paintings.

Sotheby’s said the oil painting was at one point thought to be a portrait of the artist’s mother, but later research and restoration revealed it was not a formal portrait of a particular person but a study of the effects of light.