$200 Estate Sale Find Unveils Hidden Salvador Dalí Masterpiece Worth $40,000—How Did No One Notice?
A Cambridge Antiques Dealer Stumbles Upon A Forgotten Salvador Dalí
Wikimedia CommonsSalvador Dalí created Vecchio Sultano based on a scene from One Thousand and One Nights.
In 2023, an antiques dealer who wishes to remain anonymous spotted a unique watercolor at a house clearance sale in Cambridge, England. The seller told the man that the work had previously been found in a garage in London.
The piece was 38 centimeters by 29 centimeters and was created with watercolor and felt tip, according to the auction house Cheffins. It depicts a sultan wearing a large, bejeweled turban, an image inspired by a scene out of One Thousand and One Nights.
During the house clearance sale, the antiques dealer realized that the work had a signature in the corner — one belonging to Salvador Dalí. Believing he had stumbled upon a Dalí original, he made a “spur of the moment” bid on the piece.
“I did a little bit of research, and I couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” the man told The Guardian.
Luckily for the buyer, there was only one other person interested in purchasing the unique piece. But after the man bid £150, the opposing buyer dropped out and the watercolor was now his.
The signature wasn’t the only detail that suggested that the artwork was authentic. The man also spotted a sticker on the back of the piece that showed it had been auctioned off by Sotheby’s in the 1990s.
After conducting additional research, the man discovered that the piece had, at one time, already been credited to Dalí, but had somehow lost its attribution since then. This type of loss of attribution is not common in the world of modern art, according to Cheffins associate Gabrielle Downie.
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