Turkish artist alleges disappearance of rare 1926 Atatürk portrait

ISTANBUL

A leading Turkish artist and academic has claimed that a rare 1926 portrait of modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk — painted by renowned early Republican artist İbrahim Çallı — has disappeared from an Ankara prison where it was previously kept, raising serious suspicions of theft.

Hasan Pekmezci described how, in 1983–84, while serving as a lecturer at an education institute, he was asked by prison officials to inspect a collection of deteriorating photographs and images kept in a storage room.

At the time, Türkiye remained under the military regime imposed by the 1980 coup, and authorities were in the process of officially disposing of damaged or surplus archival materials.

Amid the stacks in the room, Pekmezci noticed a torn and dust-covered canvas made of telis — a type of coarse linen used by early Republican painters.

After separating it from the materials slated for destruction, he discovered that it was a unique Atatürk portrait.

The painting, though dirty and partially torn, had survived with minimal structural damage.

Once cleaned, the work revealed Çallı’s signature and an Ottoman Turkish inscription dated 1926.

Pekmezci said the portrait was striking not only for its early date but also for its composition: A young, civilian-dressed Atatürk standing between two versions of Ankara — the war-scarred old city on one side and the rapidly modernizing capital on the other, complete with scaffolding and construction workers.

However, when Pekmezci first discovered the painting, the prison prosecutor strictly warned him not to tell anyone about it or take photographs, expressing fear that the work would be immediately confiscated by senior officials.

He secretly photographed the work anyway and later published an article about it in 1986 after finally securing permission.

Despite several attempts in the following years, he was never allowed to reexamine the painting.

Decades later, another photography team documented the canvas during work at the institution and shared the images with him — the last known visual record of the artwork.

When Pekmezci recently inquired again, prison staff told him they had never seen the painting.

He now suspects the work may have been stolen and continues his efforts to trace its whereabouts.