UK Edition
Rembrandt hung high for safekeeping returns to view in Scottish castle
The Duke of Buccleuch had An Old Woman Reading in hiding in his Scottish castle for almost two decades
A Rembrandt is now on view again after a museum told its Duke owner to lower the height he had displayed it at to avoid it being stolen.
The Duke of Buccleuch had An Old Woman Reading in hiding in his Scottish castle for almost two decades.
The noble hung it at a height of 12ft after thieves stole a Leonardo da Vinci painting from his castle, despite admitting that it caused him “great sadness because you can’t really see and enjoy her”.
During a visit to the castle, curators from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum persuaded the Duke to take the painting down from its perch to be hung at eye-level. However the safety conscious Duke has opted for the artwork to be hung in a part of the castle only accessible through a secret doorway, with visitors required to climb two sets of stairs to reach it.
A documentary named My Rembrandt shows the Duke’s concerns after his £4.25million Madonna of the Yarnwinder was snatched in 2003 by two visitors to Drumlanrig Castle, in Dumfries and Galloway.
The thieves had bought tickets to tour the castle before grabbing the painting and making off with it into the southern Scottish hills.
During the documentary, Taco Dibbits, the director general of the museum, tells the duke: “It is too high up and the intimacy it has now is lost.”
The Duke responds “Our beautiful, lovely, glorious lady...she hangs high and out of reach because in 2003 we had an awful theft from the castle.
“There was a Leonardo painting which hung downstairs. They were side by side.
“My father was so shaken by what happened that he decided that she should instead hang high up on a higher floor. But it is a great sadness because you can’t really see and enjoy her.”
The Leonardo has since been recovered and is now on loan to National Galleries of Scotland. It was found during a police raid of the offices of a law firm in Glasgow.
Five men were tried and acquitted of threatening to destroy the masterpiece unless they were paid £4.25 million in 2010.