Painting puzzle solved

A 70-year mystery surrounding a painting at Wilberforce House Museum has been solved – thanks to a chance phone call from America.
The painting (pictured right), which hangs in the main entrance of the museum, has always caught the eye of visitors, although mystery surrounded the identity of the person in the picture.
But a phone call from the Art Institute of Chicago informed Wilberforce House staff that it is a copy of a painting of Ira Aldridge, a leading Shakespearean actor from the nineteenth century.
The original painting, by artist John Simpson, is on display in the Chicago institute.
"It is great that visitors to Wilberforce House can see such an important painting without having to travel to the USA," said Cllr Kalvin Neal, who has responsibility for quality of life in Hull.
Aldridge was born in New York in 1807, the same year Britain passed its Abolition of Slave Trade Bill.
And it was in London that he made a name for himself as an actor.
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