A Painting Of James I’s Lover, Long Thought To Be A Rubens Copy, Turns Out To Be The Original

This is what happens when you let dirt – and overpainting – obscure the original. “The portrait showing George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, thought to have been James VI and I’s lover, had been hanging in a National Trust for Scotland property and was believed to be a copy of the lost original, which had been missing for almost 400 years.”