Symbol of national harmony on show
THE ‘‘Nigerian Mona Lisa’’, a painting lost for more than 40 years and found in a London flat in February, is being exhibited in Nigeria for the first time since it disappeared.
Tutu, an artwork by Nigeria’s bestknown modern artist, Ben Enwonwu, was painted in 1974. It appeared at an art show in Lagos the following year but its whereabouts after that were unknown, until it resurfaced in north London.
The owners, who wished to remain anonymous, had called in Giles Peppiatt, an expert in modern and contemporary African art at London auction house Bonhams to identify their painting. He recognised Enwonwu’s portrait.
‘‘It was discovered by myself on a pretty routine valuation call to look at a work by Ben Enwonwu,’’ said Peppiatt. ‘‘I didn’t know what I was going to see. I turned up, and it was this amazing painting. We’d had no inkling Tutu was there.
‘‘All the family that owned it know is that it was owned by their father, who had business interests in Nigeria. He travelled and picked it up in the late or mid70s.’’
The family put the portrait up for sale and it was auctioned for £1.2 million in February to an anonymous buyer. The sale made it the highestvalued work of Nigerian modern art sold at auction.
Tutu was loaned to the recent Art X Lagos fair by Access Bank, the organisers said. Peppiatt said Access arranged the loan but was not the painting’s owner.
The painting is a portrait of Adetutu Ademiluyi, a granddaughter of a traditional ruler from the Yoruba ethnic group. It holds special significance in Nigeria as a symbol of national reconciliation after the 196770 Biafran War.
Enwonwu belonged to the Igbo ethnic group, the largest in the southeastern region of Nigeria, which had tried to secede under the name of Biafra. The Yoruba, whose homeland is in the southwest, were mostly on the opposing side in the war.
Enwonwu painted three versions of the portrait. One is in a private collection in Lagos, while Peppiatt is hunting the third in Washington DC, the expert said. Prints first made in the 1970s have been in circulation ever since and the images are familiar to many Nigerians.
Enwonwu died in 1994. — Reuters