Experts believe that this painting is an authentic Vermeer. It is also the only one in a private collection. Sotheby's spent ten years analyzing the painting over concerns that it was a fake, before finally auctioning it off in 2004 for $30million. There is a larger, more complicated version on view at the National Gallery in London. The smaller version was recentlly on view in Norfolk, Va. If it is a real Vermeer, it would be number 36 of only 35 known to exist.

More about the Museum of Art and Archeology on their website, The Ashmolean Musuem.