As one of Britain’s most celebrated artists, Alison Watt has painted royalty and had her latest work displayed in the new US embassy in London.
But one portrait dominates her mind, a painting she sold more than 30 years ago at the degree show that launched her career.
The portrait of her sister helped to pay for her next work and she has not seen it since. In 1987 it was simply another painting by a budding artist but now it is one of the earliest works of an internationally acclaimed painter and would be worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Watt has launched an international search for the portrait after re-discovering a photograph of it in an old book. Despite trawling through sale records