To be or not to be: in the case of this portrait, that really is the question, as a window cleaner believes his family might own the only painting of William Shakespeare painted during his lifetime.
And if authenticated, it could be worth up to £200m.
Steven Wadlow, 58, said his father bought the painting from the Great Tew Estate in Oxfordshire in the 1960s and hung it, virtually unnoticed, in the living room for decades.
But in 2012, his father, Peter, saw a documentary about the playwright and couldn’t help but comment: “He looks just like our guy on the telly.” After telling his son this, Wadlow began trying to validate the painting, with X-rays dating it to 1595, when the Bard would have been about 31 years old.
Steven Wadlow, 58, pictured with the painting he believes is of William Shakespeare
Mr Wadlow said his father bought the painting from the Great Tew Estate (pictured) in Oxfordshire in the 1960s.
The portrait dubbed by experts as The Wadlow Portrait may actually be a life portrait of William Shakespeare.
Droeshout’s portrait of William Shakespeare, painted circa 1623. Several other 17th-century portraits purport to show the playwright during his lifetime.
Experts have since determined that it is from the correct period, not a copy, and it could be the only authenticated portrait of Shakespeare from his lifetime.
But Mr Wadlow, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, said many academics had not taken it seriously.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “Because I’m a working-class man, people who have been studying this subject for years don’t want to hear it from anyone else.” There are only two unequivocal portraits of Shakespeare, both painted after his death in 1616.
Several other 17th-century portraits purportedly show the playwright in life, although in all of them the sitter is either unidentified or the likeness has been the subject of debate ever since. Wadlow accepts that he may never know the truth about the portrait, which he keeps in a safe place, but said: “Let’s get it out and talk about it.”