Vanishing masterpiece

sir – The re-attribution of a painting is not always bad news for the owner (Letters, August 16). In 1957, the Duke of Devonshire gave one of the three Rembrandts in Chatsworth to the Treasury in lieu of death duties; Old Man in an Armchair is now in the National Gallery. Its acceptance as a genuine work enabled a large amount of tax to be paid off.

In 1969, this painting was demoted by a Rembrandt expert and considered to be the work of “a follower”, to the amusement of the Devonshires. Now the wheel has come full circle, and Professor Ernst van de Wetering, director of the Rembrandt Research Project, considers it to be by the master himself. (The National Gallery says “probably by Rembrandt”.)

The owner of the downgraded William Nicholson in the BBC’S Fake or Fortune should sit tight until a new William Nicholson expert comes along to reinstate her painting as genuine. Karin Proudfoot

Fawkham, Kent