DAY 249

ARTISTIC ODDITIES

Trash or Treasure?

THE VALUE OF GOING FOR WALKS AND LOOKING IN DUMPSTERS

W hat’s the most valuable thing you have ever found in the trash?

Whatever it is, it probably doesn’t hold a candle to the painting one New Yorker happened upon while out for her morning coffee. According to The New York Times³², while walking on the upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, a woman named Elizabeth Gibson came across a painting on the side of the road that had been taken out with the trash. She thought “it had a strange power,” so she decided to take it home and hang it in her apartment.

With the help of Google™ and the Antiques Roadshow™, she was able to determine that her painting was a masterpiece of Rufino Tamayo, one of Mexico’s most famous painters, and that other works by him had sold for more than $500,000 US.

Armed with this new information, Elizabeth contacted Sotheby’s and explained the news of her find. They were delighted to hear of the painting’s recovery, as it had been stolen years earlier. They were even able to get in touch with the painting’s original owner.

Elizabeth collected the $15,000 reward and happily returned the work to its rightful owners. The work later went on to sell for more than $1 million US. —GRG