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Painting Found in Garbage Sold for
Over US$ 1 million
 

An old painting that was found in a garbage dumping area in New York city had been sold in an auction at the Sotheby’s recently at a price of over one million dollar! The painting was stolen 20 years ago from a barn house in Texas, and had been forgotten ever since.

The painting entitled “Tres Personajes” or “Three men”, was painted by famous Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. A unanimous caller had placed a bid for the painting for  US$ 1,049,000 and he won the auction.

It was Elizabeth Gibson, a morning jogger who happened to pass by the garbage pile and  saw the painting in 2003, and rescued it.




"It was Saturday morning”, she told AFP just before the auction, “I went out for a cup of coffee at about 7. Then there in the pedestrian, I saw it amongst the piles of black garbage bags.  

"I went on my way for the coffee, but while I was reading with  my coffee  something had encouraged me to turn back and  pick up the painting. So I returned and took the painting out from the garbage. The frame was badly broken, but the painting was in excellent condition”, she added.

The painting dominated by red, purple and yellow was initially bought by a couple from Texas in 1977. When they moved away from their home, they kept in on the warehouse. Ten years later when they returned in 1987 to collect their belongings, they realized that the painting had disappeared
Where the painting was during the laxst 16 years remained mysterious, but  Gibson hung the painting in her apartment for several months after she found it.

A friend told her that the painting was an expensdive piece of art. So she started to collect all information related to the painting and found out from the internet that “The Antique Roadshow” , a television program specializing in tracking lost paintings, had once made a publicity of it.
Gibson contacted the Sotheby`s, which then helped her in her efforts to return the painting to its owner. But no result was made. No one knew who the owner was. Even the FBI has been involved in this matter.

For her good efforts to return the painting to the owner, Gibson had been rewarded with US$ 15,000 in cash. Not only that, she would receive a percentage of the money from the auction too.

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