A portrait of famed playwright William Shakespeare, said to be the only one created during his lifetime, is being offered for sale for more than £10 million (Rs 96 crore), according to a report in the Independent. It is a signed and dated image by the writer and is currently on display at the Grosvenor House hotel in West London.
Without holding an auction, the portrait’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, is making it available for private sale. The portrait was created by King James I’s court painter, Robert Blake. It is signed and dated 1608, the outlet went on to say.
The statue used to hang in the library of the former stately home of the Danby family in the north of England. Since that time it has been privately owned.
“Those behind the sale claim the connections between Shakespeare and Peake are ‘extensive’. They say Peake was regularly commissioned to paint the portraits of senior members of the Court and Jacobean society,” the Independent reported.
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It goes on to state that only two posthumous paintings by Shakespeare are usually accepted as legitimate. These are the engraving on the title page of the 1623 First Folio and the sculpture on his funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Art expert Duncan Phillips, who examined the work prior to the sale, told the Independent: “There is more evidence for this portrait of Shakespeare than any other known painting by the playwright. The picture has survived almost untouched by wear and tear for the past 400 years. owned by a family of Shakespeare enthusiasts who have hung it in their library.”
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