Friday March 29th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

80 Years Later, A Famous Egyptian Painting Lost Abroad May Finally be Coming Home

Art Talks Egypt are keen on bringing back a painting by the late iconic Egyptian painter, Mahmoud Said – the founding father of contemporary art in Egypt – from abroad.

Staff Writer

80 Years Later, A Famous Egyptian Painting Lost Abroad May Finally be Coming Home

On ZooMaal – a crowdfunding platform that makes it easy for creatives and innovators in the Arab world to get their work funded – a fund has been set up in hopes of bringing Mahmoud Said's painting, The Happy Island, back after being sold way back in the 1930s to a Greek businessman who fled Egypt. This is the full painting, 'L'Île Heureuse':

Mahmoud Said was born in Alexandria, and introduced contemporary art techniques to Egyptian painting. He was notorious for painting portraits of physically diverse Egyptian women, as well as landscapes and elements from rural and urban Egypt.The account has been initiated by ArtTalks Egypt, a Cairo-based art space that is committed to showcasing Egyptian artists' work, and it has found great success in their mission. Today, they are calling all art enthusiasts, lovers, artists, cultural heritage curators, business(wo)men, and all Egyptians to donate in order to bring back Said's painting.

The painting will be auctioned publicly in London on October 12th, 2016, and according to the account, the aim is "to raise enough funds to acquire the painting and donate it to the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art in Cairo (EMMA) where it rightfully belongs."

We totally support the crowdfunding, not only because it is necessary to preserve our culture, and especially art, but because Mahmoud Said's work is so incredibly themed after Egypt's heritage and it portrays a large and rich modern history at the rise of the 20th century, which is valuable to the Egyptian population and tourists.

Find out how you can donate at their account on Zoomaal, and save the art!