A painting by late sculptor and painter, Ben Enwonwu, sold at auction in London on Tuesday for £1.1 million.
The painting named ‘Christine’ had been with a family since it was designed in Lagos in 1971.
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The family was unaware of the painting’s significance until it googled the signature.
The London auction house said: “The family were unaware of the significance of the painting or the importance of the artist, until a chance ‘googling’ of the signature led them to Sotheby’s free Online Estimate Platform.”
The painting fetched over seven times the pre-auction estimate.
The work precedes the artist’s 1974 painting of Ife royal princess Adetutu “Tutu” Ademiluyi, which recently turned up in a London flat after not being seen in decades.
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The portrait is considered a national icon, with Booker Prize-winning novelist Ben Okri telling AFP that it was thought of as “the African Mona Lisa”.
Enwonwu, who was born a twin in 1917, died in 1994.
