“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” Painting can evoke our emotions and can even instil a sense of pride.
Artists convey a beautiful story or a message in the form of painting and stories of paintings sold at auction for millions are many these days.
Recently, a family owned a painting worth Rs 10 crore and literally had no clue about it.
Ben Enwonwu was a renowned Nigerian modernism artist who is acknowledged with the creation of ‘African Mona Lisa’. A family owned one of his creations, ‘Christine’ and did not even know its worth.
The painting had been placed in the family’s home since 1971, the time it was created in Lagos. Enwonwu passed away in 1994 and is regarded as the father of Nigerian modernism.
The painting was later sold at a mega auction for £1.1 million after the family came to know its worth after googling the signature of the artist.
As per the reports, the London auction house said, “The family were unaware of the significance of the painting or the importance of the artist until a chance “googling” of the signature led them to Sotheby’s free Online Estimate Platform.”
The painting fetched more than 7 times the pre-auction calculation.