A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals

The painting passed through several collections under doubt before being submitted to Sotheby’s London in 2004. A team of specialists convened by the auction house concluded, on the basis of pigment analysis, canvas weave, and close stylistic comparison with accepted Vermeers, that the picture was autograph. It sold that July for £16.5 million. The Leiden Collection, which subsequently acquired it, displays the work as Vermeer and has commissioned ongoing technical research in support of the attribution.

Walter Liedtke of the Metropolitan Museum of Art was among those who expressed reservations, arguing that the picture’s quality and thinly applied paint did not meet the standard of Vermeer’s accepted late works. Several Dutch scholars have likewise withheld full acceptance, and the attribution has not achieved the consensus that surrounds the core catalogue.