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Million Dollar Painting Found In Trash

Wow. 

A painting found in a pile of trash on a New York street sold at Sotheby’s auction house late Tuesday for a million dollars, nearly 20 years after it was stolen from a warehouse in Texas.

“Tres personajes” (“Three People”) a 1970 work by Rufino Tamayo, one of Mexico’s best known artists, was bagged by a telephone bidder for 1.049,000 dollars.

It had been saved from the garbage by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted the work while out walking one morning in 2003.

“It was a Saturday morning. I went out for a coffee at 7:00 am. I saw it on the sidewalk among black plastic garbage bags,” she told AFP ahead of the sale.

“I passed my way and had my coffee, but a voice inside kept telling me to go back and take the painting. So I stopped reading my book and I went back and took the painting, which had a very bad frame but was in perfect condition.”

Posted by Owen at 2227 hrs
Culture

1. Fifteen grand plus an undisclosed amount from the sale. I’ll bet in the future she will never doubt that “voice inside,” and will probably listen intently for it.

   Posted by Sandi on November 20, 2007 at 2304 hrs
   
   
   

2. See - dumpster diving can pay off!  I’ve gotten a few good things (bookshelves, chairs, tables) from the curb.  Maybe one of these days I’ll strike gold.

   Posted by Amy P. on November 21, 2007 at 0923 hrs
   
   
   

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