—has been sold by one Philadelphia museum to another.
The portrait shows Yarrow Mamout, an elderly Muslim and former slave living in Washington, DC.
Timothy Rub, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which bought the painting, declined to discuss the price, but other sources talking to the Philadelphia Inquirer speculated that it would have sold for at least $1.5 million.
Yarrow Mamout is such “a rare and important painting”—the earliest known portrait of a practicing American Muslim—that the decision was made “to give up some works from our collection” to acquire it, Rub said. It is now on view at the museum.
Philadelphia Mayor Mich-ael Nutter hailed the painting as a depiction of “a man who triumphed over enormous challenges and commanded the respect and admiration of all who knew him.”
The Atwater Kent, mandated by the city charter to be Philadelphia’s official history museum, sold the painting to raise funds for its renovation.