A \u00a3150 painting, titled Vecchio Sultano and discovered in a Cambridge-based house clearance clear-out, has sold for \u00a345,700 at Cheffins\u2019 Art & Design Sale.<\/p>\n
The work, a mixed media piece in watercolour paint and felt tip depicting a scene from The Arabian Nights, had a pre-sale estimate of \u00a320,000-\u00a330,000.<\/p>\n
Cheffins Cambridge HQ. Picture: Keith Heppell<\/p>\n
Measuring 38cm x 29cm, Vecchio Sultano – Italian for \u2018Old Sultan\u2019 – is one of a series of 500 pieces which Dali intended to create of Middle Eastern folktales. Created in 1966, it was commissioned by wealthy Italian couple, Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto.<\/p>\n
Dr and Mrs Albaretto commissioned the Arabian Nights works which they intended to publish through Italian publishing house, Rizzoli. However, Dali was thought to have abandoned the project after completing only 100.<\/p>\n
Half of these remained with Rizzoli and were damaged or lost, while the other half stayed with the Albarettos and were inherited by Christina, their daughter, who was also Dali\u2019s goddaughter. The remaining 50 illustrations which were retained by the Albaretto family were published in 2014 by the Folio Society, which sparked new interest in the project and the whereabouts of the unpublished pieces. It is believed that the present work was part of the batch which were retained by Rizzoli.<\/p>\n
The piece was acquired at a house clearance sale in Cambridge in 2023 before it was identified and authenticated by Cheffins. The Cambridge-based antiques and art dealer who bought it at auction for \u00a3150 wishes to remain anonymous.<\/p>\n
Vecchio Sultano by Salvador Dali, 1966<\/p>\n
He was told the painting had been stored in a garage in London before appearing at the house clearance in central Cambridge, and said of the auction outcome: \u201cI am over the moon with this result and am appreciative of everything which Cheffins has done in the lead up to the sale. It was genuinely very exciting to see it go under the hammer, and I am glad that it has reached the recognition which it deserves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe final price is around what we expected, and I was glad to see it sell after all the hard work and research which went into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brett Tryner, director at Cheffins, said: \u201cThis work was a significant rediscovery for Dali scholars, and the picture saw incredible amounts of interest in the lead up to the auction.<\/p>\n
Cheffins\u2019 Cambridge base. Picture: Keith Heppell<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had previously been offered at Sotheby\u2019s in the 1990s, attributed to Dali, and subsequently disappeared from public record \u2013 an unusual occurrence in the modern art world.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearching and cataloguing this piece has been an exciting journey, and we\u2019re thrilled that it achieved above its estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe work was examined by leading Dali expert Nicolas Descharnes, who confirmed its authenticity and consistency with other known examples in both style and paper quality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u00a3150 painting, titled Vecchio Sultano and discovered in a Cambridge-based house clearance clear-out, has sold for \u00a345,700…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,10052,6486,84,1190,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-227121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-artsanddesign","tag-business","tag-cambridge","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}