Rembrandt stolen from Serbian museum "fake", expert claims

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Belgrade (dpa) - An art expert has said the painting by Rembrandt stolen on Sunday in Serbia and believed to be worth millions of dollars, is not an original, Belgrade media reported on Wednesday.

Art expert Nikola Kusovac said the work was in fact worth from several thousand to 40,000 euros (48,000 dollars) at the most, adding that the thieves can do "nothing, absolutely nothing" with the paintings.

The original of the piece attributed to Rembrandt, called "Portrait of Father", in actuality hangs in the Tirol museum in Innsbruck, under the title "Bust of Old Man with Fur Cap", the Politika daily reported on Wednesday.

Four paintings were stolen on Sunday from the museum in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, among them one attributed to Rembrandt Van Rijn and another to Peter Paul Rubens.