A long-lost Rembrandt painting worth close to a million dollars was discovered September in the basement of a North Jersey home.

"The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of the Sense of Smell)," dated to 1624 when the artist was 18, will be on display starting Wednesday at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles along with two other Rembrandt "Senses" works, Hearing and Touch.

The painting had initially been appraised at no more than $800 by Bloomfield-based Nye & Co. before dealers in Paris realized it was an early work by the 17th century Dutch painter, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The dealers paid close to $1 million for the 9-inch-tall painting. New York art collector Thomas Kaplan then the purchased the painting for an undisclosed sum and restored the work.

The painting is the artist's earliest known signed work. It is being reunited with the other "Senses" portraits for the first time in three centuries.

 

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