His name is Stephen Wiltshire and he is a 34-year-old British man suffering from autism but blessed with a unique drawing talent.
In recent years, he has been traveling around the world’s major cities, drawing them from a bird’s-eye view and then presenting the works of art to the cities’ mayors and their inhabitants. Amongst the cities he visited were London, Rome, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and New York.
Memorable
A picture's worth / Shlomit Sharvit
(Video) Autistic savant Stephen Wiltshire adds Jerusalem to the list of breathtaking sketches he draws from memory. 'Jerusalem has a lot of details that don't make architectural sense. It was a challenge,' he says
Wiltshire was truly blessed with a remarkable talent. He is capable of flying over a big city for an hour or two and assessing it from above. This short time atop the city allows him to commit view to memory in vivid detail.
Upon landing, he goes straight to work and draws exact pictures of the in a manner comparable to a photograph.
As a result of his rare skill, the Jerusalem Municipality invited him to draw the country’s capital in commemoration of 41 years to the holy city’s unification.
The city invested $300,000 in the project which included Wiltshire’s salary, his flight expenses and his accommodations while in Israel.
After presenting the painting to Jerusalem’s Municipality, the painting was photographed and a copy was hung on the Old City’s Jaffa Gate so that the public would be able to enjoy it as well.
However, early this week, two faceless people arrived at the site in the middle of the night and managed to climb the wall and steal the painting.
The city’s municipality noticed that the replica was missing the next morning and said that while the thieves probably didn’t know that the picture was a reproduction, they can most likely receive a handsome sum for the copy.
The City of Jerusalem is currently planning on selling the original for $260,000 and donating the money to the city’s children.
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