Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, better known as Alberto Korda or simply Korda (September 14, 1928 – May 25, 2001), was a Cuban photographer, remembered for his famous image Guerrillero Heroico of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.

In mid 2001 I was approached by David Merry, head of the Greenwich Arts Board as he was aware that I had a large exhibition space at my gallery in Greenwich Market. The photographer Keith Cardwell, had arranged a joint exhibition of his work and that of Alberto Korda, to be held in Paris in October 2001, but the demise of Korda meant that this was cancelled. The work was in the possession of Cardwell and they were looking for anew venue for the exhibition. We framed and mounted all the prints and the exhibition went ahead in January 2002.

Cardwell was a regular visitor to Cuba to meet with Korda and exchanged photographic papers with him in exchange for signed prints. He continued to visit the family after Korda died and was allowed to continue purchasing the prints which I then sold through my gallery over the next 4 years. After a dispute with Cardwell over the display of Korda’s photographs and his breach of our contract, for which I agreed to an out of court settlement which involved me keeping all of the remaining Korda prints in my possession in payment for the money owed to me by Cardwell. I sold all but one of these, which I consider to be the rarest and most valuable, which I am now offering for sale here.

In April 1961 Korda went with Fidel Castro to photograph Castro’s meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev was amazed by the polaroid camera that Castro had and called it the magic box. The photograph is 2 separate prints, one above the other. The top image shows Khrushchev and his family posing on chairs in a field, whilst Castro kneels before them taking a phot. The second image shows Khrushchev’s hands holding the photo that Castro has taken.

The print is signed by Korda and is embossed with his personal stamp.

I believe this to be a unique double image print of this as I have not encountered another in over 20 years.