File Under "Almost Stupid"
From AP via WFMY:
An auctioneer's curiosity earned an Asheville woman nearly $400,000.The woman was trying to get rid of an old painting she had inherited. She was willing to sell it for $100. She took it to Johnny Penland, of Tommy Tuten and Johnny Penland Auctions.
He asked her to let him check into the painting's history, and consulted with Christie's auction house in New York. An expert there identified it as the work of Dutch Baroque artist Jan Havicksz Steen. It brought almost $397,000 at auction on Thursday.
The painting shows children playing a game on a winter landscape. It was probably painted around 1660.
Comments
How nice to know that some people still practice the integrity that should be part and parcel of everyone's basic morality. That auctioneer could just as easily have had the painting valued, bought it himself and enjoyed his ill-gotten gains. That he chose to do the right thing gives me hope that honesty isn't dead yet.
Posted by: The Fat Lady Sings | April 7, 2006 03:29 PM