For 50 years, 10 signed lithographs by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí were gathering dust at a basement in the United Kingdom. The rare artwork could soon find another home with an auction set for Sept. 30 at Hansons Richmond.
Antiques expert Chris Kirkham also found five lithographs by French artist Theo Tobiasse at the same client’s garage in the Berkeley Square business district in London.
“They’d been tucked away and forgotten about for around 50 years. It felt quite surreal,” Kirkham, associate director of London’s Hansons Richmond auction house, said in a press release Tuesday. “You never know what you’re going to uncover on a routine home visit.”
Back in the 1970s, the buyer snapped up the treasures in a closing-down sale at a central London gallery, paying only 500 British pounds (about C$888) for all the unframed lithographs, according to the press release.