Art Market: Rembrandt fetches a pounds 4m sigh of relief

A REMBRANDT portrait sold for pounds 4.18m at Sotheby's yesterday.

As porters brought it into the saleroom, there was an electric tension in the air. Dealers stopped talking among themselves and cameras flashed.

At first, the bidding hardly progressed from its pounds 1.5m start. There was a deathly hush for a few seconds; for many, this was a test of the market. Just when it seemed that the painting had no hope of even nearing its pounds 3m estimate, bids came from various corners of the packed room.

British, Italian, French, German and Dutch buyers craned their necks to see who was catching the auctioneer's eye.

Eventually, the number of bidders was whittled down to two contestants, one of whom was on the telephone. Portrait of Johannes Uyttenbogaert, 1633, went to a man in the room identified by Sotheby's only as a private overseas collector. However, the victorious bidder was Otto Nauman, the New York dealer. It is believed that he was buying on behalf of a passionate collector of Dutch paintings from Milwaukee, sitting beside him.

Dealers were clearly relieved. 'It shows there's a jolly strong market,' one said. 'It's a damned fine picture.' However, another said: 'It was a good price, particularly as the painting has some problems. It has been flattened, there is no impasto. It's not ideal. It's not an pounds 8m Rembrandt. It's a pounds 3m Rembrandt.'

The painting was in the family of the Earl of Rosebery for 130 years.

A painting which Sotheby's had expected to make up to pounds 3m failed to sell. Although a loan exhibit at the National Gallery from 1986 to 1991, dealers believed that Guido Reni's David with the Head of Goliath was unlikely to find a buyer. It was on the market too recently. Some thought it had been so overcleaned that it was 'raw'.

However, an overseas collector ignored the pounds 25,000 to pounds 30,000 estimate given to Judith and Holofernes by Giulio Cesare Procaccini, acquiring it for pounds 209,000. One dealer suggested that Sotheby's miscalculated the estimate because the 'gruesome subject' - the severed head - would not be to everyone's taste.

(Photograph omitted)