STOLEN.

STOLEN.

This work that I completed in 1980 was stolen from my house in Nigeria around 1994.

If anyone is in possession of it, please know that it is stolen work.

This work and more than fifty masterpieces were stolen from my apartment.

Some of the stolen works belong to Adetola Wewe, Kunle Filani, Bolaji Campbell and Tunde Nasiru, members of the ONA Art Group, whose works were assembled with me.

Last week, one of the works surfaced. It is an oil composition by Adetola Wewe. The Arthouse, an auction house in Lagos called him to inform him that a collector was trying to sell one of his paintings and Arthouse wanted Wewe to confirm the authenticity of the work.

Wewe informed them that the work is a missing painting.

Perhaps the found Wewe’s work will lead to the recovery of this painting of mine, titled The Weaver.

And perhaps lead to the recovery of the scores of works that were plundered from my apartment in the 1990s.

My work, at that time, was considered too experimental for its time. It was a time that many painters were using conventional art materials. But my works was combining all sorts of articles to form pictures.

I hope I locate this work. It marks a special moment in my life.