On March 19, 1965, Rembrandt's portrait then known as Titus sold at Christie's in London for 760,000 guineas, reported as a record price. The painting, now in the Norton Simon Museum as Portrait of a Boy in a Fancy Costume, formerly known as Titus, came from Dame Bridget Brenda Cook's sale and went to the Norton Simon Foundation. The sale became unusually dramatic because Simon was able to reopen bidding after showing that the auctioneer had missed his prearranged signal. Simon then turned the purchase into a public event, arranging an American debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington before the work traveled to Southern California.
The sale helped make auction spectacle, media strategy, and American museum collecting part of the postwar Old Master market story.
