After 15 years, a stolen Rembrandt painting has finally been recovered.
According to the Agence France-Presse, police in southeastern France seized the work "Child with a Soap Bubble," a source close to the investigation said Wednesday. Accredited to Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, the painting had been swiped from the Municipal Museum of Draguignan in 1999.
French police caught two men trying to sell the stolen painting, daily newspaper Libération reports. The unidentified men, ages 44 and 51, were arrested, and the curator of the museum was called in to identified the work.
The Draguignan museum procured the oil-on-canvas painting in 1794, making it one of the institution's first works. Based on the the artwork's valuation at the time of the theft, the painting is worth about $3.9 million euros ($5.4 million) today, according to the AFP.
As The Connexion notes, "Child with a Soap Bubble," is attributed to the Dutch artist, but has not been confirmed as a Rembrandt original and may have been completed by one of Rembrandt's students. Now that the painting has been recovered, studies may resume to confirm the true artist behind the work.
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