£300,000 For Mystery Painting

The National Galleries of Scotland have paid more than £300,000 for a mystery painting created by an anonymous artist. Gallery chiefs described their purchase of the "outstanding" Portrait of a Man as a major coup, as no similar work exists in Scottish collections. The work has now been hung in the National Gallery on the Mound in Edinburgh. However, art experts have admitted that they do not know who painted the picture, with the subject of the 500-year-old oil painting also remaining a mystery. But one curator claims that she is on the verge of discovering who the artist was. Dr Emilie Gordenker, a senior curator of early Netherlandish, Dutch and Flemish art at the galleries, believes she is close to identifying the painter. For the full story - click the title Irish Art