A Nashville real estate investor didn't know he was giving away a valuable piece of artwork when he donated a painting he found in his parents' storage bin to the Goodwill.
The 100-year-old Ellsworth Woodward water color wound up fetching $8,101 on the Goodwill's auction Web site.
The painting of a wooden ship moored at a harbor off the Isle of Capri in Italy belonged to the parents of Speed Thomas, according to WKRN-TV in Nashville.
A letter from the artist attached to the back of the frame said its original price was $75 at the San Francisco Fair.
Thomas didn't know that Woodward, a Massachusetts native who later moved to New Orleans, was a well-known 19th- and early 20th-century painter who was part of the "Arts and Crafts" movement, WKRN said.
So he took the water color and letter to one of the drop-off locations of the Goodwill of Middle Tennessee.
A local manager of ShopGoodwill.com, Susan McCullen, said she was sifting through the warehouse when she saw the edge of the painting's gold frame sticking out of a bin.
McCullen did some research on the artist and discovered the value of his work.
A Boston buyer, whose name wasn't disclosed, purchased "Felluca Capri" at the charity's online auction site late Sunday, said Goodwill of Middle Tennessee Suzanne Kay-Pittman.
No comments:
Post a Comment