Get to the choppa etc

When the legendary Bob Wakelin passed away last month he left behind an incredible legacy of artwork. Wakelin's associating with British publisher Ocean resulted in a flood of amazing covers, but he also did work for other companies, with the NES version of Contra being one of his most famous pieces.

Now, video game art collector Dan (he has withheld his second name for security reasons) has his sights set on this iconic piece of artwork, but there's one catch - no one knows where it is.

Back in the good old days, video game covers were often painted on a large scale and then photographed and printed onto packaging. As a result, many of these pieces of artwork have been lost over time - once a publisher ships a game, they often don't see the value in keeping the original art - but Dan has reason to believe that the art for Contra (which borrows Arnie's likeness, as do many other classic covers from the '80s and '90s) still exists.

Dan spoke to Wakelin a while back and was told that he had sold the original art off a long time ago. If this transaction took place then it's safe to assume whoever paid for it has saved it from the scrapheap. Dan has now gone public with his quest to obtain the art, stating that he will pay $100,000 (around £70,000) for it.

If you have this piece hung on one of your walls then this news could well convince you to part with it - unless of course you're as committed a collector as Dan, in which case you may want to keep hold.

[source kotaku.co.uk]