A group of 11 lithographs signed by Salvador Dalí that were uncovered in a London garage earlier this year have sold at auction for £19,750 ($26,200), quadruple the presale estimate.
The prints stem from what would become Dalí’s“L’Art d’Aimer d’Ovide” (Ovid’s Art of Loving) series, which reimagined romantic scenes involving the Latin poet’s characters. Ahead of the September 30 auction at Hansons Richmond, each lithograph was estimated to sell at prices between £300 and £500 ($400 and $670).
The results far surpassed expectations with all but one of the prints exceeding £1,000 ($1,320). The leading lot was The Faithless Wife of Menelaus, which depicts a Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus nude in a sylvan scene. The limited-edition print is signed by Dalí in pencil and sold for £4,900 ($6,500). Dalí’s take on Erato, Divine Erato, which casts the Greek muse in a sweep of yellow and followed by butterflies and dragonflies, sold for £3,100 ($4,110).
Salvador Dali, The Surrealist Angel (1969). Photo: courtesy Hansons.
The sale also brought forward Dalí’s bronze sculpture, The Surrealist Angel, which suspends a heartless, geometrically headed angel above a golden cube. It sold for £3,600 ($4,770), double its presale estimate.
Chris Kirkham, the associate director at Hansons Richmond, said Dalí’s status in popular culture and the international media attention generated by the chance discovery of the lithographs were to thank for the sale’s success. “You’ve got a heavyweight artist that has an enduring appeal. They’re vibrant and colorful which makes them commercial,” Kirkham said. “[The sale] underlines the passion for Dalí and we’re delighted to reunite these signed lithographs with people who will treasure them.”
Salvador Dali, Divine Erato (1976). Photo: courtesy Hansons.
Kirkham discovered the lithographs while visiting a consignor’s property in Mayfair’s Berkeley Square, an upmarket part of central London. After looking through the main house, the vendor took Kirkham to his garage.
“Lo and behold, out came this treasure trove of surrealist lithographs,” Kirkham said. “You never know what you’re going to uncover on a routine home visit; they’d been tucked away and forgotten about for around 50 years.” This treatment is one reason the lithographs’ colors are particularly clear and fresh.
A selection of the Dali lithographs set to go to auction. Photo: Hansons Richmond.
In the late 1970s, the consignor happened upon a closing down sale of a central London gallery and paid £500 ($655) for the entire group of unframed lithographs. He never got around to framing and hanging the works and rediscovered them while clearing out his home ahead of retirement and a move abroad.
“Money is glory,” Dalí once quipped ,and printmaking became one of the artist’s preferred strategies for attaining glory. He created thousands of prints, realizing he could etch an idea onto a metal plate and authorize others to create hundreds of original prints. As the latest Hanson auction shows, the strategy is still reaping fruit.