A painting by Salvador Dalí, purchased for just £150 at a house clearance sale in Cambridge two years ago, has been valued at £20,000 to £30,000 after experts confirmed its authenticity. The mixed media artwork, titled Vecchio Sultano, was created in 1966 as part of an abandoned project to illustrate The Arabian Nights.
The antiques dealer John Russell (not his real name), 60, spotted Dalí's signature in the bottom right corner of the piece at a local auction. Despite initial doubts, he bid on the spur of the moment, inspired by his love of the BBC show Fake or Fortune. The painting attracted only one other bidder, and Russell secured it for £150.
Dalí had been commissioned by patrons Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto to produce 500 illustrations for The Arabian Nights, but he abandoned the project after completing just 100. Half of those were retained by the Albaretto family and later published in 2014, while the other half remained with the publisher Rizzoli and were largely lost or damaged.
Russell later tracked down a Sotheby's auction catalogue from the 1990s that listed the painting, confirming its provenance. He then approached Cheffins auction house in Cambridge, which consulted renowned Dalí expert Nicolas Descharnes. Descharnes certified the work as authentic, noting that its style, subject, and colours matched other pieces in the series.
Gabrielle Downie, a fine art specialist at Cheffins, said: 'Dalí was quite obsessed with Moorish culture and believed himself to be from a Moorish line.' The painting, which depicts a bejewelled sultan, will be sold by Cheffins on 23 October, with an estimated value of £20,000 to £30,000.
