Miniature of 1635 by Giovanna Garzoni identified as portrait of Ethiopian heir Zaga Krist

A miniature of 1635, sold twice at Sotheby's: twenty years ago and again last year. All this time the man in the portrait remained unknown: he was thought to be from Abyssinia or North Africa. Imagine the astonishment of the owners of this trifle when it emerged that it shows Za Krestos, heir to the Ethiopian throne and one of the most celebrated Africans of the 17th century, who fled his homeland across the desert on a camel, was received by Cardinal Richelieu, wrote to his beloved, a nun named Catarina, letters in BLOOD, plotted a coup in Ethiopia, and was poisoned at the age of 28. A handsome man, a clever one and a true hero of his age. What is more, it turned out that the work was painted by the well-known Italian artist Giovanna Garzoni, who had "hidden" her name for a couple of centuries by writing it in Ethiopic script. The portrait of a (so it was thought) dark-skinned courtier was estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 pounds; now that the identity of the first African man depicted in a European miniature has been unmasked, specialists think the keepsake may fetch a quarter of a million pounds.