Answer:
Valentiner was an art critic and historian. He collected Rembrandt paintings and some of these pieces were controversial as they were found not to be done by Rembrandt.
Explanation:
Wilhelm Valentiner was born in German. As mentioned before he was an art historian and art critic. He worked at the Friedrich and the Kunstgewerbemuseum, was a curator in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City and eventually became Director of the Detroit Museum of art.
He was responsible for conducting this Institution to be one of the leading art museums at the time. He acquired and exhibit many important art pieces and was the link between Ford financing Diego Rivera's series of murals painted in Detroit.
He was an important part for the development of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
He ended his career directing the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh from 1955 to 1958. Throughout his work at the museums he was interested in forming expert curators and creating a collection that would serve as a resource for the community.
Being a great collector and expert on Rembrandt, he published several works like: "Rembrandt auf der Lateinschule" in 1906, as mentioned before, also "Rembrandt" in 1907, "Rembrandt: des Meisters Gemälde in 643 Abbildungen" in 1908, and "Rembrandt: wiedergefundene Gemälde, 1910-1922, in 128 Abbildungen" in 1923.
He collected many of Rembrandt's art works throughout the years and under his position as Director in the North Carolina Museum of Art he recommended the acquisition of two particular paintings thought to be from Rembrandt at the moment. Later on were discovered to belong to the creation of other artists. These of course created the controversy mentioned in your question. These painting were reattributed to their legitimate creators.
