Priceless Rembrandt painting returns to its French village after years. It is now protected

A priceless painting by Rembrandt depicting Christ on the Cross has just returned to the village of Mas-d’Agenais in Lot-et-Garonne: the village of 1,500 inhabitants actually owns the Dutch master’s work, and now, after six years of exile in Bordeaux due to a defective window, the painting has returned to the Saint-Vincent Church in Mas-d’Agenais.

Rembrandt created the painting in 1631. It is an exceptional work measuring 100 x 73 centimeters, where the artist “renewed the codes of the representation of Christ, showing a man in agony and frail,” explained Aude Claret, curator of Historical Monuments at DRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

Rembrandt’s painting is the protagonist of a curious story in the village: in fact, the village happened to find itself its owner. A captain in Napoleon’s armies originally from the village, Xavier Duffour, bought the painting, apparently unsigned, at an auction in Dunkirk in 1804 and donated it to the Mas-d’Agenais church the following year. A century later the municipality came into possession of the work when the church and state separated. It was classified as a historic monument in 1918, but it was not until 1959 that a Louvre restoration unearthed the signature of the Leiden painter, Rembrandt (RHL).

For decades the work was displayed unprotected, sometimes even in a wooden sideboard or display case. “Anyone could have ruined it,” commented Mayor Claude Lagarde. Preparations have been underway for months to move the Rembrandt very discreetly from its temporary display case in the Saint-André Cathedral in Bourdeaux to its home in the Romanesque collegiate church of Mas-d’Agenais. "It is a work linked to the village and it is therefore very important that it returns to the place where it has been since the 19th century. The painting has made an incognito journey in a van escorted by an anonymous car; the municipality and DRAC have gone to great lengths to now offer the work an ultra-secure location, with alarms, video surveillance and an armored case.

Such a work classified as a Historic Monument is “priceless” and in fact “not intended to be sold.” The community is not even thinking about it. The enhancement of the painting in a newly renovated church will “strengthen its tourist appeal.”

Priceless Rembrandt painting returns to its French village after years. It is now protected

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