After news emerged that Robert De Niro was visiting Poland, a Polish museum suggested that he come and view their portrait of a local 17th-century nobleman who many have noted looks remarkably similar to the Hollywood star, right down to the moles on their cheeks.
The painting, dating from 1629, hangs at the National Museum in Wrocław, Poland’s third-largest city, and depicts Johann Vogt, a landowner and member of the city council of Wrocław, who was aged in his 50s at the time.
While Vogt is himself a largely forgotten figure, the painting, which has been attributed to local artist Bartholomeus Strobel, has gained fame for the subject’s remarkable likeness to De Niro.
The museum’s director, Piotr Oszczanowski, noted that Vogt and De Niro have “a few distinctive features in common” – and even “the same twinkle in their eyes”.