Rembrandt Lion Drawing Could Shatter Auction Records, Proceeds to Benefit Big Cat Conservation

A 17th-century Rembrandt drawing of a lion, *Young Lion Resting* (1638-42), is poised to break auction records for works on paper. American collector Thomas Kaplan, founder of Panthera, a wildlife conservation group, plans to sell the drawing, potentially fetching "multiples of tens" of millions of dollars. This could challenge the existing record of $48 million set by a Raphael in 2012. Kaplan, who owns nearly half of all privately held Rembrandts, intends to donate the proceeds to Panthera, supporting the protection of lions, snow leopards, and jaguars. The drawing, believed to be sketched from life, is currently on display at Amsterdam's H'ART Museum as part of *From Rembrandt to Vermeer: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection* before moving to Florida. Kaplan describes the artwork as giving "a greater interior life to a cat than most artists give to a human."