Rembrandt painting was altered to erase turban from man’s head, restorers find

Let The Little Children Come Unto Me, previously not confirmed to be a Rembrandt, had also been edited to clothe the naked child in the foreground. Photograph: Sotheby's

Layers of overpaint have been removed from a 17th-century painting, confirming that it was painted by Rembrandt and revealing that a turban on one of the figures had been replaced with a traditional Dutch soft cap.

A later anonymous hand had amended or sanitised Rembrandt’s original, apparently misunderstanding that its biblical theme – “Let the Little Children Come Unto Me” – is about tolerance, with Christ blessing children as well as adults. In the gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus rebukes his disciples for turning away parents who brought their children to him: “Suffer [allow] little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”