Twenty paintings by the British abstract painter Winston branch of the Caribbean have been restored after traces of nearly fifty years ago.

"These works were stolen from his studio because he couldn't pay off the rent in the 1970s," his agent Varvara Roza told The Guardian. "It's shocking, isn't it?"

Branch, 78, is now represented in Tate, the Bistry Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Collectors paid over £400,000 for his paintings, while his auction record was around £240,000, at the price reached in 2023 at Christie's London's The Magic in You In You In You In You In You, a glittering abstract painting that recalls Monet's nymphs.

Branch was upset after his early symbolic paintings disappeared from his warehouse studio he rented at Berlin at the age of 28. After offering a Guggenheim scholarship in the late 1970s and traveling frequently to New York, he returned to Germany and found his entire studio empty.

He later discovered that his paintings and personal effects had been removed without any warning - it was all because he had not paid two months of rent. He told the Guardian: "The owner of the building... does not speak any English, and my German was not the best at that time.

“They are very rude and arrogant. If they gave me (…) time, I would solve this problem, but they are cruel… Unfortunately, I didn’t rent a rent because I live from hand to mouth.

"If my attorney had the ability, I could have fought in court because you couldn't get into the building without giving a tenant notice. It was a tough time in my life."

Unable to trace these paintings, he gave up all his hopes to see them again: “I feel like my whole life has disappeared.”

The works have now surfaced after the German owner decided to sell them through the Galerie Volker Diehl in Berlin, which in turn contacted the branch office. The artist now learns that the paintings were sold to an architect by the studio's landlord in Berlin, who bought them sincerely and brought them to his home in Greece.

While the missing images are symbolic, branches are known for being nature-inspired abstracts.

"Winston is known around the world for the form of violent abstract works that showcase like visual poetry, but these ... early symbolic works provide a window for his painting evolution," Roza said.

The recycled paintings require some repairs and the branches have been repaired. In September this year, they will be on display at the Galerie Volker Diehl for the first time.

As early work, they cost between £95,000 and £150,000. Roza said the branch would receive a percentage of sales, avoiding a "long-term legal battle" over ownership, although he was initially frustrated because he felt the works belonged to him.

He decided to buy himself a painting: “That’s the painting I really want…because that woman (this is) the mother of my second daughter.

"I drew her first in her clothes, and secondly without her clothes. I'm testing my ability to have really descriptiveness in painting."

He said a symbolic price of 10,000 euros was reached, which was much lower than its market value, as he understood the owners had to be compensated. When it arrives from Berlin, he will hang it in his studio in London.

German gallery owner Volker Diehl described the paintings as "absolutely amazing."