‘Portrait of a Lady and her daughter,’ (look, there they are, to the right) by Renaissance artist Titian has failed to sell at Christie’s. It’s not the first time the long-lost piece has been snubbed either.
"It is a shame," stated a Christie's spokesperson. "Because, it’s a lovely story. It's a beautiful picture which was of great interest."
An improvement on Sotheby’s calling it fake back in 1947, at least.
The portrait of Titian’s daughter, Emelia, and granddaughter, was left incomplete following his death from plague. A student completed the picture – with sex changes and angel wings – renaming it ‘Tobias and the angel,’ after the Bible tale.
The fudged transexual fooled no-one.
Tsar Nicholas I's advisors dubbed it phony, palming it off to French collector Rene Gimpel in the 1920s. During the Second World War it was shipped to London and hidden in a Bayswater garage, out of reach from invading Germans.
Following Gimple’s death, it took two years for him, we mean her...oh stuff it...the Canvas to be rescued. 20 years of renewal later ‘Portrait of a Lady and her daughter,’ could finally shush the nay-sayers with her true identity.
Londonist suggests ‘Lady,’ with her counterfeit covered-up sex change and surreptitious colourful past, should become patron saint of Soho.
Thanks to Silvia for this post.
