portrait

Beneath a portrait of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and patron of the prizes, the committee convenes on Monday morning, four days before announcing the winner.

The first group contains an exquisite 1897 Klimt portrait, titled “Woman With Fur Collar,” that Barron described as “small but mighty.”

In 1877, Congress even passed a law prohibiting it, which says that “only the portrait of deceased individuals may occur on the United States currency and securities.”

Decades after Kennedy’s death, his portrait hung in the homes of many American Catholics, often adjacent to religious iconography such as Virgin Mary statuettes.

Baghdad-born Mohammed Sami, who began his career painting official portraits of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, is favoured by other critics.