{"id":34161,"date":"2025-07-31T04:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/34161\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T04:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T04:57:09","slug":"eagle-eyed-buyer-snaps-up-30k-dali-painting-for-150-at-house-clearance-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/34161\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagle-eyed buyer snaps up \u00a330k Dal\u00ed painting for \u00a3150 at house clearance sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Salvador Dal\u00ed painting, initially acquired for a mere \u00a3150 at a house clearance sale, has been authenticated as an original and is now valued at up to \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n

The mixed media piece was purchased by an anonymous art dealer.<\/p>\n

They later discovered it had been previously offered for sale at Sotheby\u2019s in the 1990s, fully attributed to Dal\u00ed.<\/p>\n

The artwork is set to be auctioned by Cambridgeshire auctioneers Cheffins on 23 October.<\/p>\n

Gabrielle Downie, an associate at Cheffins, said the loss of an attribution is \u201cquite rare in the modern art world\u201d, making it a \u201csignificant\u201d rediscovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo handle a genuine rediscovery of a work by who is easily one of the most famous artists in the world, and the godfather of Surrealism<\/a>, is a real honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having the painting authenticated again was an \u201cexciting process\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\"Vecchio<\/p>\n

Vecchio Sultano by Salvador Dal\u00ed is to be offered for sale by Cheffins auctioneers with an estimate of \u00a320,000 to \u00a330,000<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a testament to the sellers\u2019 significant art knowledge that he was able to spot this picture at a house clearance sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Dal\u00ed\u2019s work is often some of the most recognisable, this is an unusual piece which shows a different side to his practice when working in watercolour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artwork, titled Vecchio Sultano, was discovered in a Cambridge-based house clearance sale in 2023.<\/p>\n

It has been certified as authentic by Dal\u00ed expert Nicolas Descharnes and has a pre-sale estimate of \u00a320,000 to \u00a330,000.<\/p>\n

The image, made with watercolour paint and felt tip, measures 38cm by 29cm.<\/p>\n

It is an illustration of a scene from The Arabian Nights, a series of 500 pieces which Dali intended to create of Middle Eastern<\/a> folktales, which was commissioned by wealthy Italian couple Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The painting has been certified as authentic by Dal\u00ed expert Nicolas Descharnes<\/p>\n

Ms Downie said: \u201cThe Albarettos who commissioned this work had initially asked Dal\u00ed to illustrate a bible in 1963, but upon Dal\u00ed\u2019s insistence, he instead ended up illustrating scenes from 1,001 Nights \u2013 a collection of Middle Eastern folktales.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems Dal\u00ed was fascinated with Moorish culture and believed himself to be from a Moorish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems that this project was abandoned, with Dal\u00ed only having completed 100 of the intended 500 works.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf these 100, half remained with the publishing house Rizzoli and were either damaged or lost; the other 50 stayed with the Albarettos and were later inherited by their daughter, Christina, who was also Dal\u00ed\u2019s goddaughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the 50 that were retained by the family that were published in 2016 by the Folio Society.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, given that Dal\u00ed engineered the commission to suit his whims, that he very much enjoyed this project and the subject matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is most likely that the work in question came from the batch of 50 which were retained and later lost by the publishers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Salvador Dal\u00ed painting, initially acquired for a mere \u00a3150 at a house clearance sale, has been authenticated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,31325,31321,460,134,31323,31322,31320,31324],"class_list":["post-34161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cheffins","tag-clearance-sale","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-gabrielle-downie","tag-nicolas-descharnes","tag-salvador-dali","tag-vecchio-sultano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}