OLD MASTER OR COPY ?

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 48, 26 February 1926, Page 7

OLD MASTER OR COPY ?

£20,000 OR £25? UNUSUAL INSURANCE CLAIM. SUBSTITUTION ALLEGED. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 2.30 p.m.) LONDON, February 25. The romance of a painting which was purchased for £25 from London dealers, under the belief that it was only a copy of a Raphael, but which subsequently turned out to be a genuine old master valued at £20,000, was related by Lady Robert Thomas in a claim against one of Lloyd's underwriters for payment of an insurance policy on the picture, which was destroyed by fire in her home in Anglesey. Sir Robert Thomas, who also gave evidence, valued the picture greatly because of its romantic history. When purchasing it he told the dealer to renovate it. The dealer later communicated with him, offering to give him £500 to release him from the bargain. Sir Robert subsequently compensated the dealer to the extent of £100. He regarded the picture as the most valuable of his possessions. When- he was absent the picture was always removed to a room where someone was constantly in attendance. The defence maintained that the picture destroyed was not the one'insured, and, further, that when the insurance was effected, it was not revealed that Sir Thomas had bought it as a copy of a Raphiel for only £25. It was also maintained that the picture was merely a reproduction.

The hearing was adjourned.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)