One Lion Raises Millions For Other Wild Cats

A rare Rembrandt drawing, Young Lion Resting, just sold for $18 million at auction, with proceeds supporting wild cat conservation charity Panthera.

'Young Lion Resting'

Over the past two decades, the billionaire entrepreneur Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife Daphne have amassed around 220 works of 17th-century Dutch art that they call the Leiden Collection (named after Rembrandt's birthplace). Now they have parted with one of their earliest acquisitions: Rembrandt’s life-like drawing Young Lion Resting (around 1638-42).

According to The Art Newspaper, the Kaplans acquired the drawing in 2005, but they have chosen to sell the work now to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Kaplans’ founding of the organisation back in 2006. Kaplan expects the publicity of the sale itself to help promote Panthera’s mission. Last year he said that “It’s going to be one of the most expensive drawings ever. That attracts people’s attention.”

Only 6 drawings of lions by Rembrandt are currently known. Young Lion Resting is the first drawing by the master to come to the market in a century, and the sale price sets a new record for a drawing by Rembrandt by almost $15 million.

“The pulse of life that Rembrandt captured in this lion’s gaze continues to beat today through our conservation field programs. This sale provides Panthera with critical resources to combat poaching and habitat loss globally, ensuring that the majesty Rembrandt admired in the 17th century survives well into the 21st and beyond.”