Stolen painting found in rubbish to be auctioned for $1 million
Published on: 25-Oct-2007
A long-lost stolen painting found in a pile of rubbish in New York is expected to attract bids of up to $1 million at auction.New Yorker Elizabeth Gibson came across the masterpiece by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo as she walked near her Manhattan apartment four years ago.
She stands to make $15,000 from the discovery plus a proportion of the sale's proceeds.
The picture had been stolen in 1987 from a Houston couple after they had bought it for $55,000 and despite the efforts of the FBI remained on the missing list.
Gibson's efforts to trace the picture's origins though, finally paid dividends.
She told reporters she had a feeling that the picture on her wall should be elsewhere and after trawling the internet, discovered the picture on an episode of the 'Antiques Road Show' devoted to missing art.
As she explained: "It was saying, 'I'm not meant to be here in your apartment', but I'm meant to be someplace…what are you going to do about me?"
The painting might have been lost forever as bin collectors called 20 minutes after she retrieved it.
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