Oh Rembrandt Discovered in an attic that sold for $1.4 million. A 17th-century painting, “Portrait of a Girl,” by Dutch artist Rembrandt Hermanzoon van Rijn was discovered in an attic at an estate in Camden, Maine, by art appraiser and auctioneer Kaja Veleks. A label on the back of the frame notes that it was loaned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1970 for an exhibition.

“On house calls, we often go in blind, not knowing what we’re going to get,” said Veleks, of Thomaston Place Auction Galleries. “The house was full of wonderful pieces but it was in the attic, among the piles of art, that we found this remarkable portrait.”

According to the business, the painting had been in family ownership since the 1920s, and the painting remained with the family after being exhibited in Philadelphia. The owner could not be identified.

How it ended up in the attic was also a mystery.

Rembrandt, born in 1606, was a gem. The artist who focused on a variety of subjects, from portraits to landscapes to historical and biblical scenes.

“Portrait of a Girl” was painted on an oak panel and mounted in a hand-carved gilt Dutch frame, Velleks said.

one Auction He said that the Thomaston Place Auction Galleries had stiff competition on August 24. Finally, a European collector paid $1.41 million for the painting.

Last year, a seemingly unusual painting, which a woman bought for $4 after finding it among a stack of frames, turned out to be a painting by Needham-born artist NC Wyeth. It was later auctioned for $1,91,000.

Titled Ramona, this painting was one of four commissioned by Little, Brown and Company for the 1939 edition of Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel of the same name.