2017 holiday
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2017
Presented is a lithographic print of a painting by Muhammad Ali, with his autograph in black ink on the bottom left. It is marked in pencil at the lower left corner “116/1000,” part of a limited edition printing. In 1979, Muhammad Ali had just regained the heavyweight boxing championship in a rematch with Leon Spinks, and would soon retire from boxing as the first man to gain the title three times in a career. As a special project for the United Nations, Ali created this image, of a stylized continent of Africa, with three trees in the left corner, the Pyramids and the Sphinx in the upper right, a black man in chains near a pile of gold in the lower right. The legend “Let My People Go” is in brown and black across the bottom of the image. To the right of the image is a United Nations/Namibia stamp, with the cancellation seal over the bottom for “Namibie.” The print is on brown paper with a scalloped bottom of the page. The back has poem in black ink with a printed Muhammad Ali signature, and the note “World Federation of the United Nations Associations Limited Edition Serigraph, From a painting by Muhammad Ali (USA).”