Prince Philip was accompanying Queen Elizabeth II on an official visit to Denmark when the venerated modernist painter Marc Chagall pressed a gift into his hands. It was 1960 and the pair had just met at a ceremony where Chagall was presented with the prestigious Erasmus prize. Philip would later recall the artist’s “jocular attitude” as he showed him around his exhibition.
“He gave me this Bible he has illustrated, just out of the blue. He was a very strange man,” Philip reportedly said. It was also something of a strange gift. Inside the Bible, Chagall had daubed colourful illustrations in watercolours, chalk and ink. Those two illustrations could now be worth as much as £60,000.
