The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Waves heave the little boat almost vertical, the sail straining, one terrified disciple vomiting over the side, another clutching the rigging, while at the stern Christ sleeps - until, woken, he will still the storm (Mark 4). Rembrandt's only seascape throws the viewer into the panic, light breaking through the black sky onto the spray. Stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the notorious 1990 heist, it has never been recovered, and survives now only in reproductions - a masterpiece present in this collection as an image but missing from the world.