Unusual illustration, to be sold by Cheffins, was part of surrealist artist’s abandoned Arabian Nights project
It is not a painting that screams it is a masterpiece by Salvador Dalí to the untrained eye.
So when the unusual picture went up for auction in a house clearance sale in Cambridge two years ago, it attracted just two bidders – and sold for £150.
Now, it has been valued at £20,000 to £30,000 after it was confirmed to be an illustration of an “old sultan” that Dalí painted in 1966.
Vecchio Sultano, a mixed media artwork made with watercolour paint and felt-tip, is an illustration of a scene from The Arabian Nights – one of 500 illustrations which the great surrealist artist intended to create of the Middle Eastern folktales.
