He added that Sotheby's old master experts had brought in scholars who examined the painting with infrared reflectography, which reveals the drawing beneath a painting's surface.
Hanging in the Dutch painting galleries is "Hercules and Achelous," a 1590 painting by Cornelis van Haarlem that old master experts say Mr. Koons bought for $8.1 million in April at Christie's in New York.
Among them are pieces that constitute some of history's more esteemed feats of artistic deceit, including paintings by the great Dutch forger Han van Meegeren that fooled old master experts for decades.
YouTube has become the next frontier for toy companies to master, experts said, as kids become harder to reach through traditional media like television.
The singer wants to dispense with outside producers – and even mastering experts – for her third LP.
When he first saw the portrait, François de Poortere, an old master paintings expert at Sotheby's, said he spent hours studying the gold-ground panel.
Makeup is really the most democratic of beauty interventions: less dangerous and time-consuming than plastic surgery, less expensive than a personal trainer, easier to master than expert clothes sense.
But Scott J. Schaefer, formerly an old master painting expert for Sotheby's and now the Getty's paintings curator, was sitting in the salesroom and said the museum did not even bid.
Old master paintings experts say Ms. Johnson has been talking about selling the painting for quite some time now.
Kerby Kuek, a self-styled feng shui master, says experts in the field can charge 400 dollars to 40,000 dollars to assess an apartment of 55 square meters, or about 600 square feet, depending on the fame of the consultant.
