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...