Unable to confirm the painter's identify despite several tantalising clues, the experts became convinced there was a second image lying underneath the surface which could solve the problem once and for all.
They took the painting to two X-ray imaging laboratories, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York in the hope of uncovering the hidden layers of paint.
The imaging technology, which highlights pigments concealed beneath the surface, has previously thrown up new discoveries in works by Van Gogh and Goya.
A variety of different X-ray techniques to identify pigments in flesh tone colours such as lead white and vermilion, and concentrations of elements such as copper which did not correlate with the paint on the surface.
The tests uncovered the outlines of a younger, beardless man sporting a beret, an image that strongly resembled other works by Rembrandt, leading Prof Ernst van der Wetering, an art historian at the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, to conclude that the new painting had been done on top of an unfinished self-portrait.
Prof Koen Janssens, of Antwerp University, who helped carry out the X-rays, said: "We did not realise at first that this particular shape was so meaningful.
Read more at The Telegraph
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