The Dunedin Public Art Gallery public programmes manager Robyn Notman, has been on a nerve-wracking assignment to the UAE.She was dispatched from New Zealand with a padded security case to bring home from Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, a 152 year old painting worth more than a $1million.
The work, the 1857 oil on wood painting entitled ‘The Bouquet’, by British painter John Frederick Lewis (1805-76), has been to galleries in the United States, the United Kingdom and Istanbul, Turkey, before finishing in Sharjah.
To read more about the mission on board Emirates (did Robyn take the painting to the restroom on the plane or leave it in the luggage locker overhead?) and the 4.30am changeover outside the Sharjah Art Museum:
Chris Morris, Art Treasure Safely Back from Tour, ODT, 6 July 2009
Dr Geoff Pound
Image: A portrait of John Frederick Lewis. Check out the ODT article to see a picture of Robyn still glued to The Bouquet.
