"During the sale of the contents of a London garage, he spotted Dali's signature in the bottom-right corner of the picture and stickers from Sotheby's on the back. He thought the painting might be a fake but decided to bid for it on the spur of the moment. Only one person bid against him, dropping out when Russell offered 150."
"Russell, who had spent more than 4,000 getting the painting authenticated and researching its provenance, said he felt over the moon when the hammer went down. It was amazing, he said. I was very pleased after all the uncertainty and doubt right at the beginning about whether it was real or not, and the whole journey for the last two years it was just extraordinary."
A watercolor and felt-tip painting purchased for £150 at a Cambridge house clearance was later identified as a lost Salvador Dalí illustration and authenticated. The buyer, using the name John Russell, spotted Dalí's signature and Sotheby's stickers during a London garage sale and bought the piece on impulse. Cheffins auctioneers authenticated the work as a scene from a planned 1966 series of 500 paintings of The Arabian Nights. The painting sold to an overseas buyer for £47,700. The buyer spent over £4,000 on authentication and provenance research and described the sale as extraordinary. The published buyer name was changed to protect the purchaser's identity.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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