By Nii B. Andrews
The world of contemporary African art (CAA) is celebrating the momentous recent discovery in London of a missing masterpiece painted by the great Ben Enwonwu.
The painting, “Tutu”, was executed in 1974; a total of three versions were painted but sadly, none of them has been seen for several decades.
One of the versions of the painting was discovered in late 2017, by Giles Peppiatt – Director of CAA at the auction house Bonhams.
A family had asked Peppiatt to visit their London flat in order to appraise a painting for auction- a painting that had been inherited from their parents.
Describing his elation on seeing the missing masterpiece, Peppiatt said, “Sometimes you go somewhere on a wing and a prayer, you don’t know what you are going to see … this was an enormous surprise.
It is a picture, image-wise, that has been known to me for a long time, so it was a real lightbulb moment; I thought: ‘Oh my…., this is extraordinary.’”
Tutu is currently appraised at between £200 000 to £300 000. It will be auctioned at Bonhams on February 28 2018.
The apocryphal story about Tutu is that in 1973, Enwonwu encountered the Ife princess – Adetutu Ademiluyi and was so struck by her beauty that he decided to execute a portrait of her.
The painting was finished in 1974.
Several poster reproductions were available and have been extremely popular, but the three original paintings disappeared; one of which has just surfaced.
Enwonwu died in 1994.
Tutu is regarded as his greatest masterpiece.
There are another two out there………..somewhere!