Stolen Ritz-Carlton Rembrandt Recovered

A 1631 portrait of Rembrandt, by the artist. Courtesy deflam on Flickr.

The Judgment, an 11-by-6-inch pen and ink Rembrandt sketch that was lifted last Saturday from a private exhibit at the Ritz-Carlton Marina del Rey, was recovered earlier this week. The artists work is a popular target for art thieves, logging some 81 documented heists in the past 100 years. Rembrandts work is second only to Picassos for high-value art thefts. While the majority of stolen Rembrandts have been found and returned to their rightful owners, three Rembrandts taken in the high-profile 1990 theft of 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston remain at large.For Rembrandt lovers, two special exhibits on now are must-see shows. The first is an extensive collection of drawings by the artist and his circle at the Institut Neerlandais of Paris, on now through October 2, 2011. Visitors can view 20 drawings by Rembrandt himself and nearly 100 by other artists in his 17th-century school of influence. The second show featuring Rembrandts work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art examines the artists renderings of the face of Jesus. In posing an ethnographically correct model and using a human face to depict Jesus, Rembrandt overturned the entire history of Christian art, which had previously relied on rigidly copied prototypes for Christ.Find great luxury hotels from Paris to Philly on Perfect Escapes.