Laurence Cremetti - A True Story

Once upon a time, a boy was born and brought up in a quiet Midlands Market Town. Throughout his youth he was aware that his name was very unusual - so unusual, in fact, that he knew of no-one else outside his immediate family with the name.

As he grew older, he became deeply interested in art in all its forms, particularly music and photography. He studied photography as art in senior school and became an accomplished drummer, often musing as to where his artistic inclinations had come from and occasionally reflecting on the origins of his unusual name.

Sadly, the boy's father died when he was only eleven years old and he never had the chance to ask him about the name. As time went by, the boy, now a young man, continued to develop his photographic and musical skills; becoming adept at playing guitar and bass and successfully writing, recording and selling his own musical compositions. His fascination with his roots grew, but questioning his mother and his father's last remaining sister produced little information.

There was talk of an agreement in the 1950s with "the family" not to use "the name", and memories of an uncle named Paul Eugene who spent a lot of time in Switzerland. The young man assumed "the name" was his surname - Cremetti, but was puzzled as it was obviously still in use.

Laurence's mother found a reference to a theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue mentioning the presence "in his box" of a patron named Eugene Cremetti in the late 19th Century. War records spoke of a pilot, Lieutenant Max Arthur Eugene Cremetti, who had been mentioned in dispatches and received the DFC during World War I, prior to his death in an air accident at Hendon whilst serving as a test-pilot. This was fascinating as both Laurence's father and grandfather had Eugene as their middle name, and Laurence's elder sister had been given the feminine version - Eugenie as one of her names. Yet still there was a mystery - who was Eugene Cremetti and what was his connection to Laurence?

With the advent of the Internet it seemed that here was a resource which may finally shed a little light on this, but for years it was not to be. Searches came back with no results, or with references only to Laurence himself and to his wife. More recently, other results have appeared; firstly to Cremetti's living in Ticino, Switzerland, an apparent link to Paul Eugene, then to others living on Cremetti Lane in Nevada in the United States. All attempts to contact these few living Cremetti's failed: neither emails nor telephone calls were returned.

At last, the searches began to bear fruit. One search revealed a scholarship fund set up in Eugene Cremetti's name at Harrow School. Pages emerged which talked of Eugene Cremetti's partnership with Count Maximilian Hollender in an Art dealership in Bond Street in the early 1900s. Mention was made of his habit of giving all his sons the middle name Eugene, and of Paul Eugene following him into the Art business. Numerous sites detailed art works by such greats as Turner, Holbein and Cuyp having been purchased for posterity by the National Art Collections Fund (Eugene Cremetti Fund) for museums and galleries, including the Tate and throughout the UK.

So the mystery begins to unravel. Laurence's talent for the arts is there in his ancestry and his unusual surname is more unusual than he ever guessed. Yet there is more to be uncovered. What was the reason for the agreement not to use the name? How did Laurence's branch of the family become separated from those who remain in Europe and America? Why are all attempts at contact rejected?

Laurence Cremetti is the last living male member of this highly influential family, and with no knowledge of his heritage, unconsciously, through the genetic gift for artistic vision passed down from his forebears, he continues to involve the Cremetti name in the art world of the UK.

Offered for sale here are some of his photographic artworks, many limited to just 100 signed prints. As the artistic creations of the last in the UK Cremetti line, these works represent the end of an era and this is your opportunity to be a part of the story.

Meanwhile, Laurence's research goes on. He is currently in communication with both the Tate Gallery and The Art Fund about his family's contribution to the arts and as the mists surrounding this story clear he will be relating the whole story on The Cremetti Blog....

Just a few of the art works purchased with the assistance of the Eugene Cremetti Fund:

• "Woman Ironing" oil on canvas by Edgar Degas - Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
• "Gibside, Seat of the Earl of Strathmore, from the North" watercolour by JMW Turner - Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
• "Rustic Music (Portrait of John Hanson Walker)" oil on canvas by Lord Frederic Leighton - Leighton House Museum, London
• "Cheetah and Stag with Two Indians" oil on canvas by George Stubbs - Manchester Art Gallery
• "St Peter's from the Villa Borghese, Rome" watercolour by John Robert Cozens - Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester
• "Christ Taking Leave of His Mother" oil on wood by Albrecht Altdorfer - National Gallery, London.