Philipp Reemtsma

"Another sceptic was the biggest cigarette manufacturer in Europe, the German Philipp Reemtsma, who had met Jan Rupert in Hamburg in 1950 and was impressed with everything he saw and heard about Rembrandt. When he eventually met Rupert, the two men became firm friends despite initial language difficulties. A World War I pilot himself, Reemtsma had lost three of his sons during World War II. While he suspected that the enterprising young South African would become his main competitor, he asked himself: ‘What would you do for your own son?’ He decided to take Rupert under his wing and helped him in crucial ways."

"Rupert first paid a visit to Philipp Reemtsma in Germany to ask advice and enlist his support. Then he went to England to start talks with Sir Edward Baron. He secured the backing of a later faithful ally, the financier Edmund de Rothschild, who knew the Barons well and worked on them to sell their shares and special voting rights to Rembrandt. De Rothschild told the family members with voting rights that Rupert was ‘an honourable man who would look after the interests of the employees’. According to him one of the family members was undecided, and ‘a certain degree of diplomacy’ was necessary to convince him to part with his interests."