Follower of Joos van Cleve: has it been cut down recently?

Deutsch, auction house in Austria, sells on 23 June 215 an "Attributed to Joos van Cleve" Virgin and Child with Cherries, 61.5 by 43 cm, estimated at 2,600 to 4,500 Euro.

It is a nice enough picture, but was it some 6 cm wider until a few years ago? And if so, has part of the original been removed, or was it a later addition? The former would be a severe case of vandalism, common in earlier times but I hoped eradicated by now. The latter is of course more debatable.

At Fivecenturies, a Russian art seller, one can still see a now sold painting which looks very familiar, apart from the right side where some rather poorly painted donor portrait makes the painting less attractive. This painting measured 61 by 49 cm, so the same height but 6 cm extra width. Could it be that someone has removed 6cm on the right, and repainted the remainder of the right side to remove all traces of the donor? I can find not a single difference between the painting for sale and the Russian one. It's fairly common to have multiple copies of the same painting, but usually they differ in the details...

The painting is now attributed to Joos van Cleve, but despite its good quality is more likely to be by a Follower. All versions of this painting which are accepted as original (e.g. the one from the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum in Aachen, or the one sold at Sotheby's in 2002), and most of the known copies (some 20), face to the left, just like the Italian (Da Vinci) original of the composition. Only some 5 copies, all attributed to followers of Cleve, face to the right, like this one.

While it is worth the estimate, I would put it back to a Follower of Joos van Cleve, not attributed to him, and have serious reservations about the removal of the right part, which can't be undone anymore.

UPDATE: sold for 17,000 Euro, so some people believed in it or didn't know (or care) about the history.

UPDATE 2: now for sale at Lempertz (14 may 2016) as "Antwerp School, ca. 1560" with an estimate of 20,000 to 24,000 Euro. Looks like someone's gamble didn't pay off, no artist could be linked to it (as expected), and now they hope to recuperate their investment.

UPDATE 3: the first attempt to get their money back failed, so it is again for sale at Lempertz on 21 September 2016, now estimated at 16,000 to 18,000 Euro.