Rembrandt 'painted in Hull' set to sell for £30m. Could it be brought back for City of Culture?

A masterpiece by Rembrandt, thought to have been painted while the Dutch artist was living in Hull, is going under the hammer this week. And there are now suggestions that the painting could be perfect for Hull's City of Culture celebrations - if its new owner was willing to display it in the city. Rosie Millard, chair of the City of Culture team, said she had initially joked about borrowing the painting for 2017 after discovering it was going up for auction for £30.4m when she was reviewing the Sunday papers for Sky. She later tweeted to her 5,000 followers about Rembrandt's link to Hull, saying: "Rembrandt spotted in Hull. Our City of Culture, now and in 17th century." And today she said an ambitious bid may be possible, if the new owner was a gallery, museum or high-profile owner. The painting, Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, was completed in 1658, while the artist was thought to have been living in Hull. Rosie said today: "How wonderful it would be – I joked – if we could have it on loan during the city of culture year. "The world of Old Master buying and selling is not one I know huge amounts about. "It is not something that is being seriously thought of but if it is bought by an institution, or someone in the public domain, maybe it might be nice to see if it could be displayed."

Shock. Rembrandt may have visited Hull! Told you it was cultural. @2017Hull I'll be chatting about it Sky News, paper review 07.40

— Rosie Millard (@Rosiemillard) October 5, 2014

Currently owned by New York gallery owner Otto Naumann, the painting will go on sale at the Frieze Masters art fair to be held in London's Regent's Park. In an article in yesterday's Sunday Times, arts editor Richard Brooks said the piece could have been completed while Rembrandt was living in Hull. According to Brook, the 18th-century engraver and antiquary George Vertue recorded reported sightings of Rembrandt in Hull in 1661-2. The accounts, based on family legend, had been made by a contemporary of Vertue, an English painter named Marcellus Laroon the Younger, but were never corroborated. Brooks wrote that there were "rumours" that the painter had been in Hull a few years earlier. Simon Schama, the historian who has written a book about Rembrandt and will present a documentary about the artist on BBC2 this month, told Brooks it was possible that the Dutchman painted the work in England. "He had gone bust in 1656 and was certainly evicted from his home in early 1658," Schama said. "The only definite documentary evidence we have was that he was seen in Hull in the early 1660s at a time when there are no records of him being in Amsterdam." Rosie pointed out the possibility of Rembrandt being in Hull because of the strength of the Hanseatic League, which saw trading links between Hull and the Low Countries, and how taken he would have been taken with the "breathtaking" effects of the light on the water on the Humber.