Status Updates From The Boston Raphael

Interesting not only as a picture of what happened during the tenure of Perry Rathbone at the MFA, but also for all the history of American museums in general, the inner workings of museum management at that time when a shift from art to business mode was under way. Also glimpses of the less than glorious side of the art "trade," the politics and maneuvering going on. Lots to read about.

In 1966 a group of Dutch art historians convened in an attempt to settle the many questions of attribution of paintings to Rembrandt. But while they significantly reduced the number of misattributions, there were many that were never firmly settled..the number of genuine works waxing and waning over the years. Finally, more than fifty years later...the project has come to a halt in an admission of the impossible.