Fresh research has revealed how the prestigious pair seized the moment to ensure their likeness was painted by the great Dutch artist

As a major exhibition on the Dutch Old Master opens at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a divide has emerged among specialists over the total number of autograph works

All you ever wanted to know about Hals, from an 18th-century biography to a 1994 novel of the artist's “lost diaries”—selected by the Rijksmuseum curator Friso Lammertse

Plus, Frans Hals at London's National Gallery and a Peter Paul Rubens painting inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses

We spotlight eight paintings in the London show that Vincent singled out for special praise

First major survey of Dutch painter in three decades will include reunited panels and monumental paintings

Our roundup of the latest art publications

Plus, the story of a notorious forger and artist Collier Schorr on August Sander

London Court of Appeal upholds the auction house's defence in forgery case, rejecting appeal by investment company Fairlight Art Ventures

In latest hearing of ongoing legal saga, Fairlight Art Ventures, co-vendor of painting sold in 2011 for $10.75m, is refusing to pay auction house more than $5.3m

Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer was taken in previous heists with a work by Jacob van Ruisdael

A London-based investment company must repay more than $5.3m to the auction house, which refunded an American client for work