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REMBRANDT ‘LADY’ $EDUCES BIDDER

A wealthy art dealer shelled out a world-record $29 million for a Rembrandt masterpiece, saying he had no choice after falling in love with the woman in the picture.

The 17th-century oil painting, titled “Portrait of a Lady,” was sold yesterday to Robert Noortman of Holland at an auction at Christie’s in London.

The painting fetched almost $22 million more than expected.

“You can tell that the woman in this painting must have been someone Rembrandt really liked, because it is so intimate,” said Noortman, who owns his own gallery.

“There is such feeling in it that you fall in love with the old lady just looking at it. I fell in love with her, even though she’s meant to be 62 – and my wife didn’t even mind.”

The portrait, thought to be one of Rembrandt’s early works, was signed and dated in 1632.

It was part of a sale of the huge collection of the late Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild.

The woman portrayed in “Portrait of a Lady” is believed to have been Rembrandt’s friend, a 62-year-old named Aeltje Uylenburgh.

She was the wife of a Calvinist clergyman, Johannes Sylvius, who also had close contact with the painter.

The clergyman vouched for Rembrandt when he got married, and christened the artist’s second child, daughter Cornelia, in 1638.

“It is the best Rembrandt to come up at auction for decades, and he was one of our greatest painters, so I am very happy,” Noortman told the BBC.

“I knew it was going to go for more than Christie’s thought, but it’s only money.”

A major work by the 17th-century Venetian artist Canaletto was sold for $11 million. The painting, “Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo,” had been expected to pull in around $6 million.