Painting chimpanzee draws crowds to Rio zoo

The 26-year-old chimp has been producing paintings each day for three weeks at the Niteroi Zoo.Roched Seba, the animal's trainer, said Jimmy had shown no interest in the toys and other diversions that chimpanzees typically enjoy.

In an effort to entertain the chimp, three weeks ago, Mr Seba brought some paints to the enclosure. Jimmy at times declines to paint if his cage is surrounded by too many gawkers.

But for at least 30 minutes a day, the chimp carefully dips his brush into plastic paint containers and uses broad, bold strokes to create his art.

An exhibition of Jimmy's oeuvre is already in the works. But the chimp is not the first animal to wield a paintbrush. An African elephant called Brittany decorates canvases to be sold at the Milwaukee County Zoo's gift shop to raise revenue.

The value of the animals' output can be surprisingly high. A trio abstract paintings executed by a chimpanzee named Congo in the 1950s sold for $26,352 at a 2005 auction in London - an impressive figure considering that works by masters including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Andy Warhol languished unsold. Pablo Picasso was rumoured to have hung a huge canvas by Congo on his studio wall after receiving it as a gift.

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