by Jon Lackman | 13 March 2006 | Baroque/Neoclassical
According to the Mumbai Mirror, restorers at the Prince of Wales Museum recently attributed an eighteenth-century Sword of Damocles to Antoine Dubost (1769-1825), whose work has been attracting renewed interest and higher auction prices in recent years. “A saga of jealousy that could rival a soap opera lies behind it,” remarked conservator Abraham Joel. Dubost’s work hung alongside one by rival Benjamin West “at the residence of famous collector Thomas Hobe. Hobe was already in a legal battle with Dubost as old court case papers show. So West and he conspired to defame Dubost. The collector had the top of the painting sawed off ostensibly so it would fit in a niche at his home.” “The painting was later acquired by Christie’s and they sold it off as an anonymous French Master. Sir Ratan Tata bought it in 1970 for a mere 57 pounds.”
