Gabrielle Downie at Cheffins with the Salvador Dali. Picture: Keith Heppell<\/p>\n
The dealer who purchased the mixed media piece, who wished to remain anonymous, discovered it had previously been offered for sale at Sotheby\u2019s in the 1990s, fully attributed to Dali.<\/p>\n
Gabrielle Downie, an associate at Cheffins, said: \u201cThe loss of an attribution is quite rare in the modern artworld making this a significant rediscovery for Dali scholars.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo handle a genuine rediscovery of a work by someone who is easily one of the most famous artists in the world, and the godfather of Surrealism, is a real honour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been an exciting process researching and having this painting authenticated and it 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 Dali\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
Vecchio Sultano by Salvador Dali is to be offered for sale by Cheffins auctioneers with an estimate of \u00a320,000 to \u00a330,000. Picture: Cheffins<\/p>\n
The artwork has been certified as authentic by Dali 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 and is an illustration of a scene from The Arabian Nights.<\/p>\n
It is one of a series of 500 pieces that Dali intended to create of Middle Eastern folktales, which was commissioned by wealthy Italian couple Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto.<\/p>\n
Ms Downie said: \u201cThe Albarettos who commissioned this work had initially asked Dali to illustrate a Bible in 1963, but upon Dali\u2019s insistence, he instead ended up illustrating scenes from 1,001 Nights \u2013 a collection of Middle Eastern folktales.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems Dali was fascinated with Moorish culture and believed himself to be from a Moorish line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems that this project was abandoned, with Dali only having completed 100 of the intended 500 works.<\/p>\n
The painting has been certified as authentic by Dali expert Nicolas Descharnes. Picture: Cheffins<\/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 Dali\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 Dali 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":"It was discovered in a Cambridge-based house clearance sale in 2023 by an art dealer, who bought it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,10052,6486,84,1190,1120,96,649,15873,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-76524","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-quirky","tag-trending","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76524","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=76524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}