To the untrained eye, it looks more like an alien has landed on Chewbacca’s head than a masterpiece by Salvador Dalí.
But the watercolour and felt-tip painting – bought two years ago for £150 – has been sold at auction for £45,700, after it was identified as a lost illustration of an “old sultan” by the great surrealist artist.
The piece was found at a house clearance sale in Cambridge two years ago by a local antiques and art dealer, John Russell*. During the sale of the contents of a London garage, he spotted Dali’s signature in the bottom-right corner of the picture and stickers from Sotheby’s on the back.
He thought the painting might be a fake but decided to bid for it “on the spur of the moment”. Only one person bid against him, dropping out when Russell offered £150. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling,” he told the Guardian.
On Friday, the painting was sold to an overseas buyer by the Cambridge auctioneers Cheffins, which authenticated the work as lost scene from a series of 500 paintings of The Arabian Nights that Dalí had intended to create in 1966.
“It’s not to everyone’s taste,” said Brett Tryner, director at Cheffins auctioneers. “It’s definitely a Marmite picture. But some people absolutely love it – that’s art.”
He said there had been an “incredible” amount of interest in the sale, adding: “Dalí originals just don’t come up that often.”
Russell, who had spent more than £4,000 getting the painting authenticated and researching its provenance, said he felt “over the moon” when the hammer went down. “It was amazing,” he said.
“I was very pleased after all the uncertainty and doubt right at the beginning about whether it was real or not, and the whole journey for the last two years … it was just extraordinary.”
* John Russell’s name has been changed to protect the identity of the buyer.
