Art: Queue for Rembrandt

One of the more thought-provoking sights of Manhattan is the great holiday queue that forms—rain, sleet or snow—at Radio City Music Hall, the winding, four-abreast line of people waiting to see Audrey Hepburn or Rock Hudson. But last week, the most impressive queue in Manhattan was about 30 blocks uptown, and the attraction was a fellow named Rembrandt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art had wasted no time in putting on display Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer, bought at the Erickson auction for $2,300,000 (TIME. Nov. 24). Bathed in a glow from several spotlights and flanked by two guards, it hung against a red velvet drapery in the Great Hall. It was inevitable that the most expensive painting in the world should attract the curious, but clearly most of the people had come just to see a painting that has a beauty and clarity unknown to modern art. On the first day, 42,000 people came. In the four hours that the museum was open the next day, the figure shot up to 82,679—giving Rembrandt a 4-to-1 lead for the day over the Rockettes.