Is mooning gnome an old master?
SOMETIMES you have a fortune sitting right under your nose.
Like the sculpture of a reclining lady, whose blouse appears to have been mislaid, that was used for years to decorate a garden. Now it has been identified as a work in marble by Italian artist Antonio Canova, created in 1882 for the then UK Prime Minister, the Earl of Liverpool.
And who would have thought Liverpool had an Earl?
The statue will be auctioned at Christie’s in July and is expected to fetch between £5m and £8m.
By heck, it makes you think. I have a sculpture I use as a garden decoration that is also delicately deshabille.
All right, he’s a garden gnome with his trousers round his knees who is mooning at the world while he grins cheekily over his shoulder. It was a present from old pal Mike Hamer for my 50th birthday (many years ago), but who knows where Mike got it? Could it be an old master and worth a fortune?
In ancient Rome small statues of the fertility god Priapus were often placed in gardens, and during the Renaissance, they were described as: “Diminutive figures two spans in height who did not like to mix with humans.” Which sounds like me.
They were placed as ornaments in the gardens of the wealthy.
Could mine have once belonged to Nero?
Or was it made by Michaelangelo, who knocked them out in his spare time for beer money while building St Peter’s Basilica?
“Two for the price of three, sir. I can’t say fairer than that.”
Probably not. It’s more likely that I will have similar luck to comedian Tommy Cooper who was also a bit of a collector.
He found a Stradivarius and a Picasso in his loft but, as he said, Stradiavius wasn’t a very good painter and
Picasso made lousy violins.