In brief
This painting, exhibited at the TEFAF Maastricht art fair, is gaining attention due to its rich historical context and possible acquisition by a renowned museum.
A rediscovered portrait of Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, painted by Gustav Klimt, has attracted significant interest at this year's TEFAF Maastricht art fair in the Netherlands. The Vienna gallery representing the painting, Wienerroither and Kohlbacher, has confirmed that a major museum is in negotiations to acquire this remarkable work, initially showcased with a price tag of 15 million euros (around $16.4 million).The striking head-and-shoulders portrait, completed in a style reminiscent of Klimt's early realism, features the prince against a lush floral backdrop. Lui Wienerroither, co-founder of the gallery, indicated that these discussions are still ongoing, as buyers at TEFAF often take their time to ensure due diligence is undertaken before finalizing high-value transactions.This painting's historical significance is profound, depicting an individual from the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), whose community was controversially exhibited in colonial human zoos throughout Europe at the end of the 19th century. Klimt likely encountered these performances while visiting a mock-African village set up in Vienna's Zoological Garden in 1896, which famously attracted crowds of up to 6,000 visitors daily—a vivid portrayal of this dark chapter of history is captured in Peter Altenberg’s contemporary novel "Ashantee."The painting recently surfaced in 2023 when an unsuspecting Austrian couple brought it to the gallery in a dilapidated condition. Upon examination, auctioneers discovered a tenuous Gustav Klimt estate stamp on the canvas, and further inquiry confirmed with Klimt expert Alfred Weidinger that he had indeed painted a portrait of a prince from the Osu people, marking a significant breakthrough in the work's provenance. After Klimt’s passing in 1918, the painting was in his estate until it was auctioned in 1923, and later featured in a Klimt memorial exhibition in Vienna five years thereafter, loaned from a local collector, Ernestine Klein.
