Family break silence on Poussin painting found near Ipswich

In 2002, the Onians estate received around £1 million in settlement fees, after a three year dispute with Sotheby's London, with the rest of the money going to lawyers on a no-win-no-fee basis.

The family had sued over its sale of the painting, The Destruction And Sack Of The Temple Of Jerusalem, by the legendary artist Nicolas Poussin.

Ernest Onians, the family's reclusive entrepreneur uncle, had bought the artwork in the 40s for just £12 - joining his huge hidden stash in his Baylham Mill home, near Great Blakenham.

He never realised its true legendary identity, and it sat there for decades until his death. Neither did Sotheby's, who were enlisted to auction his work after he died in 1995.

Sotheby's estimated that it would fetch just £15,000, listing it as The Sack of Carthage, painted by lesser-known artist Pietro Testa.

However, on the day, art gallery Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox placed a bid of £155,000 and took it away to restore it.

Then in 1998, it was then sold to Lord Jacob Rothschild for £4.5 million. He later donated it to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where it hangs today.

Charles Onians has broken the silence on the missing painting. (Image: Contributed)

Charles Onians, Ernest's grand nephew, has now spoken about the family's "pain" and "trauma" for the first time, after he recently found there was no non-disclosure agreement.

He came to speak to this paper after being contacted about the sale of his great uncle's Baylham Mill home, which is currently up for sale.

He said: “It was deeply traumatic for everyone.

"I wasn't on the front lines like my father, but it had a long-lasting impact.

"Any family that has a threat of bankruptcy for nothing that they've done would be scared.

“We felt vindicated by the result, because it’s better to feel vindicated than bankrupted.

“And now that we know there is no NDA, we can actually speak about this."

He now wants to know if, after all these years, Sotheby's still refuses to accept the art work is a Poussin.

Sotheby's were contacted for comment on this, but did not provide a statement.

Ernest Onians, also known as the Pudding King, was a unique and eccentric character. (Image: Newsquest)

'The mystery'

Ernest Onians, known as the 'Pudding King of East Anglia', made his fortune in Suffolk selling his creation, the Tottenham Pudding - a pungent pig feed made from food waste in London.

The industry had a massive surge in the post war era, making the scouse-born entrepreneur extremely wealthy in his new life in Suffolk.

However, away from the muck and the mire, he had a second love, art; with paintings stacked up in his chicken shed and outhouse, and too many canvases to hang on the walls.

Known by some as a ladies' man, later in life he became more reclusive, and his family say "his paintings were like his children".

Looking back, Charles says, "the whole saga with the Poussin was just a big mystery".

He does not think his great uncle knew the painting was a Poussin, but he can't be sure about anything.

Balyham Mill near Great Blakenham has been put on the market. (Image: Jackson Stops)

It had disappeared from public view sometime in the eighteenth century, and no one knows how it turned up in Suffolk.

In 1999, Sir Denis Mahon, the great art expert, was somehow able to spot it looking through catalogues during the time of Onians auction, when he spotted the picture on a piece of paper "no larger than a postage stamp".

After it was extensively cleaned and restored, an expert at the Louvre, Pierre Rosenburg, confirmed that it was indeed the Poussin once owned by Cardinal Richelieu.

Painted by Poussin in Rome in 1625-1626, it had been commissioned by the Pope’s nephew Cardinal Barberini as a gift for Cardinal Richelieu.

Inside Bayhlam Mill, where Ernest Onians worked and lived. (Image: Jackson Stops)

'A balls up'

When contacted by this paper, Sotheby's did not comment on whether they now consider the artwork to be the prized missing Poussin.

They noted how the case was almost 25 years old, and the case was resolved through an out-of-court settlement.

Charles Onians added: "It’s not surprising they don’t want to comment on a matter that was for them a real balls up.

"How many opinions from how many people do you need for the painting to be attributed to someone famous?

"How many experts are needed so that it goes from being worth £100,000 pounds to several million pounds?

"This is the problem. If they put more effort in, just a little bit more effort, then they could have identified this painting as being a Poussin at the time.

“I don't think they've ever had any expert who said on the record that it is a copy, like they say.

“ These guys are experts at stone walling and just not, you know, not communicating.

“Their reputation is everything.

"They were very aggressive towards us at the time, employing the most expensive lawyers in London, knowing that we would be afraid of having to pick up their multi-million-pound tab."

"Of course, it’s a matter of opinion, but these are the opinions that count.”