Sur Arte, la fascinante odyssée d’un Klimt disparu retracée dans un documentaire
A long-lost portrait by Gustav Klimt, depicting a young Black man, has been rediscovered and is the subject of a new documentary on Arte. The film, "Gustav Klimt and the Enigma of the Ghanaian Prince," details the painting's authentication and the investigation into the identity of its sitter, who was identified in 2024 as Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, a member of the Ga people who was in Vienna in the late 19th century.
The documentary's investigation matters because it intertwines art history with colonial memory and Nazi looting. The portrait is Klimt's only known painting of a Black person and raises questions about the representation of non-Western figures in European art. Furthermore, the work was looted from a Jewish family in 1938, resurfaced in 2023, and was shown at TEFAF Maastricht in 2025, making its restitution and rightful ownership pressing contemporary issues.