Is it a real Dalí or a copy? Jack Vreeke of the Disinherited Good Foundation in Eindhoven quickly noticed: “this is rare”. The lithograph from 1951 hung for years at a large copying company, but probably nobody realized that it was an original work by the world-famous Spanish artist Salvador Dalí. The foundation sells the artwork through an auction that anyone can bid on.
It is a lithograph, which means that it is made with the lithography technique of lithography. The eccentric Dalí is known for his surrealist art, often involving vast bare expanses with unreal figures meeting each other. That also applies to this work of art.
“Probably they thought it was a copy. You can imagine that if you’re a big copy company.”
However, the copy company’s employees did not immediately notice. “The company has its own art collection, employees were allowed to buy works from it. They have overlooked this work or found it uninteresting. They probably thought it was a copy. You can imagine that if you are one of the largest copying companies,” explains Jolande Otten, director of Distributor Good.
Stichting Onterfd Goed helps museums, municipalities, schools and institutions that manage art. They help improve their collection, but also help clear up depots.
Otten: “We are looking for new owners from the public. Art was once purchased with tax money, so it’s great that we can give it back to society.”
“In this you really see the structure of the stone, it is an original lithography.”
At first Jolande did not see that it was a real Dalí. “I thought, ‘Here we have another one.’ So many works of art are copied, including by Dalí. So that’s what we often think when we see something like that.”
But volunteer Jack Vreeke thought otherwise. He looked closely at the lithograph and concluded: it is certainly a real one. Vreeke: “When it comes to a commercial printing technique, you see a grid in the printed matter. But in this you really see the structure of the stone, it is an original lithography.”
“We want art to go to a good place and not to knock people out of their pockets as much money as possible.”
The artwork is being auctioned. And not in the way that people bid against each other, but through a blind auction with a minimum bid of 400 euros† “Anyone interested in Dalí’s lithograph can make a written offer in our mailbox. You offer an amount once that you want to spend. Those bids are collected, the highest bidder has it. We do it this way because we want to prevent people from bidding beyond their own borders. That is also the philosophy of Disinherited Good: we want art to end up in a good place and not to knock people out of their pockets as much as possible.”
You can bid until Saturday 14 May at 20.00.