Eva Peron prompted adulation and loathing in equal measure during her time as one of the most powerful women in Latin America. Yet a more 'intimate, sweet and spontaneous' side of Evita is said to have been revealed for the first time with the discovery and restoration of more than 600 images documenting her six years as Argentina's first lady The Observer reports from Buenos Aires .

The images, hidden for more than 40 years, have been put on show in Argentina by historian Maria Teresa Mazzorotolo, the daughter of Peron’s personal photographer. Photographer Alfredo Mazzorotolo shadowed Evita and captured some of her most personal moments. After a military uprising ended Peron’s presidency, Mazzorotolo put his negatives in a casket and buried them. Some 20 years later, he dug them up, but it was another 20 years before he told his daughter.