STORIES YOU WON’T READ ELSEWHERE BUT WE NEED FINANCIAL SUPPORT. IF YOU WON’T HELP WE CLOSE Please contact Michael Walsh for easy transfer details keyboardcosmetics@gmail.com

A damaged painting bought at an antiques market for a few zlotys has turned out to be an extremely rare portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, potentially worth millions. The small oil on canvas is only one of a few that is known to be painted during Chopin’s lifetime.

The current owner, a 30-year-old man named Maciej, bought it from his uncle who himself bought it 28 years ago at an antiques market in a small town near Lublin in eastern Poland. When the uncle fell on hard times, Maciej bought it from him. He then gave it to an expert for valuation.

When he heard by phone during a car journey what he actually had, the news was so astonishing that he crashed his car into a ditch.

Professor Dariusz Markowski, the art conservation specialist who first saw the work, said: ‘This painting has been through a lot, that was my first thought. In fact, it came into my hands in a terrible condition. It must have been kept in bad conditions, probably it had been soaked in water.’

An analysis of the paint pigments dated the work to the 1840s, a few years before Chopin died in 1849. Markowski said: ‘The painting is an original work created in the 1840s and is one of the few portraits of Fryderyk Chopin made during his lifetime.’

Journalist Joanna Lamparska, who reported on the discovery on Onet said: ‘The portrait had previously been cut from its frames, which may suggest that it was hidden, possibly stolen and that its fate was dramatic.’

The history of the painting is not known, nor how it found its way to the antique market in a town near Lublin. The artist who painted it is also not known. The canvas is simply signed Alfred followed by the word Pinxit, Latin for ‘painted by’.

Nonetheless, the painting will be of huge interest to Chopin scholars as it shows the pianist in an un-glamourised form without embellishment.

Professor Markowski said: ‘The few portraits of Chopin are generally idealised, whereas this portrait shows a thin, sickly man. The composer is not ‘beautiful’ here, he is shown in a naturalistic way.

‘In view of the fact that there are very few portraits of Chopin painted during his lifetime, the painting has great historical significance and hence its material value may be high.’

The painting has now been restored with professor Dariusz Markowski, the art conservation specialist who first saw the work, saying: ‘In view of the fact that there are very few portraits of Chopin painted during his lifetime, the painting has great historical significance and hence its material value may be high.’

He pointed to an unsigned portrait of Mozart that went up for auction in Paris in 2018, which, despite its guide price of EUR 800,000 to EUR 1.2 million, eventually fetched EUR 4.4 million. The discovery was made a couple of years ago but was kept secret while being restored.

The painting has now been taken out of its vault to be viewed by Bożena Schmid-Adamczyk, curator of the Fryderyk Chopin and George Sand Museum on Majorca, who is in Warsaw for the International Chopin Competition taking place in Warsaw this month.

Think your friends would be interested? Share or reblog this story!

MICHAEL WALSH is a journalist, broadcaster and the author of WITNESS TO HISTORY, RISE OF THE SUN WHEEL (Paperback / Ebook), EUROPE ARISE, TROTSKY’S WHITE NEGROES, MEGACAUST,  DEATH OF A CITY,  MY LAST TESTAMENT LET GOD JUDGE ME, THE BUSINESS BOOSTER, DEBTOR’S REVENGE,  IMMORTAL BELOVED,  THE ALL LIES INVASION (Paperback / Ebook), THE All LIES INVASION II (Paperback / Ebook), Odyssey Adolf Hitler, INSPIRE A NATION Volume I and II,  SLAUGHTER OF A DYNASTY, REICH AND WRONG, THE RED BRIGANDS, RANSACKING THE REICH, SCULPTURES OF THE THIRD RIECH: ARNO BREKER AND REICH SCULPTORS, SCULPTURES OF THE THIRD REICH VOLUME II Josef Thorak and Reich Sculptors, SCULPTURES OF THE THIRD REICH VOLUME III Porcelain and Reich Sculptors, The Exiled Duke Romanov Who Turned Desert Into Paradise, THE DOVETAILS, SEX FEST AT TIFFANY’S, THE PHANTOM OF OPHELIA, A Leopard In Liverpool, The Stigma Enigma (Paperback / Ebook), The Souls Meet, All I Ask Is a Tall Ship, The Leaving of Liverpool (Paperback/Ebook), Britannic Waives the Rules (Paperback/Ebook), UNTOLD SAGAS OF THE SEA Volume I (Paperback / Ebook), Whispering Hope, FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK, and other book titles. These best-selling books are essential for the libraries of informed readers.

MICHAEL WALSH NOVELS

The revenge of a predator is a city-vigilante epic better than Death Wish A LEOPARD IN LIVERPOOL, 55 lavishly illustrated first-hand stories by a Liverpool sailor THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL (Paperback / Ebook), Britannic Waives the Rules (Paperback/Ebook), Latest Killer-Thriller From Michael Walsh the City Vigilante Supremo The Stigma Enigma (Paperback / Ebook), A powerful thought-provoking paranormal romance The Souls Meet, How to form a naughty ménage a trois THE DOVETAILS and SEX FEST AT TIFFANY’S.

THE PHANTOM OF OPHELIA Michael Walsh. A novel but not a work of fiction. Drawing on his real-life and location experiences this romantic-supernatural biography will ravish the reader. A page-turning terrifying white knuckle ride because these are his real-life apparitional experiences.

Latest Michael Walsh bestsellers: Those who fall victim to the taxman, banks and moneylenders are victims of legalised mugging  DEBTOR’S REVENGE, The Business Booster shows you how to double your profits not your workload THE BUSINESS BOOSTER 

MICHAEL WALSH is a journalist, author, and broadcaster. His 70 books include best-selling A LEOPARD IN LIVERPOOL Vigilante Thriller (Paperback / Ebook); THE LAST GLADIATORS Fiancés of Death (Paperback / Ebook); AFRICA’S KILLING FIELDS: African Victims of the Liberal-Left (Paperback / Ebook); RHODESIA’S DEATH EUROPE’S FUNERAL European to Wall Street Colonialism (Paperback / Ebook); The Stigma Enigma, RISE OF THE SUN WHEEL (Paperback / Ebook),  EUROPE ARISE, FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SPEAK, THE ALL LIES INVASION (Paperback / Ebook), THE All LIES INVASION II (Paperback / Ebook), The Stigma Enigma(Paperback / Ebook), INSPIRE A NATION Volume I, INSPIRE A NATION Volume II, and many other book titles. These illustrated best-selling books are essential for the libraries of informed readers.

The author’s books are available for purchase by visiting his website BOOKSTORE, and POETRY  links.

We are in debt to our donors who finance the distribution of spin-free real news and fearlessly expressed views.

BUY FROM AUTHOR

MEGACAUST Michael Walsh. R. J. Rummel,   Power Kills: Genocide and Mass Murder (Journal of Peace Research) 164 million people have been killed in cold blood this century by Capitalist / Communist governments. 

SLAUGHTER OF A DYNASTY  Michael Walsh. Covertly sponsored by Wall Street banks and the White House Bolsheviks seized Tsarist Russia (regime change). For 36 years news of Bolshevik atrocities and 70 million martyred Christians were censored by Western media.  Lavishly illustrated, this expose reveals secrets removed from Western history books.

When ordering the book contact Michael Walsh by email euroman_uk@yahoo.co.uk to receive your signed copy.

KEEP REAL NEWS OPEN: Donate by using Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria, registered mail or contact Michael Walsh: keyboardcosmetics@gmail.com or euroman_uk@yahoo.co.uk 2) Follow our blog. 3) Share our stories and 4) buy our author-signed books. 5) Receive free newsletters by writing subscribe to euroman_uk@yahoo.co.uk

BOOKS THAT CHALLENGE, INSPIRE, INFORM Michael Walsh, ‘Writer of the Year’ with a strong global following. Nearly 70 interesting Amazon book titles famed for changing and improving lives. CLICK TO VIEW

www.mikewalshwritingservices.wordpress.com

New stories every day!

EUROPE RENAISSANCE

https://europerenaissance.wordpress.com/