Art enthusiasts are losing their minds over this discovery.
A very rare and significant portrait of England’s monarch Henry VIII – thought to have been lost in 1781 – is hidden in plain sight on a British official’s wall, a historian has revealed via a photo posted on X.
Sotheby’s auction house consultant Adam Busiakiewicz recently spotted the work in a photo taken during an official reception inside a government building called Shire Hall.
It’s where a local representative for the royal family, currently Lord Lieutenant Tim Cox, operates in a town two hours north of London – and ironically has done so since the reign of Henry VIII.
“Strange discoveries can happen at any moment, it seems,” Busiakiewicz wrote in a blog post about his discovery.
That first painting in the left-hand corner after the holidays is that of the Warwickshire painter Ralph Sheldon, who in the 1590s was commissioned to illustrate 22 portraits of “Kings, Queens, and international personages,” Busiakiewicz wrote in X.
The Warwick Henry VIII painting has the same arched top and is framed in a matching frame as other surviving examples. Furthermore, a carving of the Weston House frieze shows the same composition for Henry as found in the Warwick painting. pic.twitter.com/WBImFYaVfV
— Adam Busiakiewicz (@Adam_FineArt) July 7, 2024
They first hung out at Weston House, Sheldon’s home in the area.
However, he noted that a large portion of the works are believed to have been “distributed in 1781”. Only a few have survived the test of time, according to EuroNews.
Henry’s gift as a Sheldon painting was from “the same arched top” as other works and was “framed in a corresponding frame like other surviving examples”, the art historian added.
After the discovery, Busiakiewicz was invited to observe the painting to verify his thoughts. It has now been moved to a museum collection center for further analysis.
“The recent discovery of a ‘lost’ portrait of Henry VIII through social media has opened up exciting opportunities for art recovery and identification,” NYC-based art appraiser Kelly Cahn told Forbes.
“Given that there is no central database that tracks the ownership and location of important works of art, the vast reach of social media presents new opportunities to find works that were once lost to history.”
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Image Source : nypost.com