Displaying remote images

[Jack Kamm]

When trying to display a remote image file in an org-mode buffer, I
only see a blank square instead of the image.

This is a longstanding problem, and there was an attempt to patch it in
2014, but the patch was never accepted:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2014-11/msg00583.html

The fault might be with image.el rather than with org-mode itself --
for example, when I execute the following elisp, I get the same blank
box:

(insert-image (create-image "/scp:pi:/home/pi/foo.png"))

However, if I open the remote file in its own buffer using image-mode,
I can correctly view the image.

Anyways, I would like to try and fix this, but not sure whether we
should pursue a fix in org.el (as in the linked patch), or in
image.el, or elsewhere.

Any advice on how to proceed here?