Painting Found In Trash Worth $1 Million

You’ve heard the old expression “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure?” Elizabeth Gibson believes it with all her might. Because she’s living proof of the old adage.

The 53-year-old was walking down the street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side four years ago when something lying in a pile of trash on the street caught her eye. It turned out to be the painting pictured at left, and while she’s far from an art critic, she was sure it didn’t belong there. So she decided to take it home and try and figure out what it was.

Her research led her to a website and a shocking discovery – the canvas was a 1970 effort called “Tres Personajes” by a Mexican artist named Rufino Tamayo. He died in 1991 and as so often happens in the art world, the value of his works skyrocketed.  Its estimated worth now: $1 million.

What was it doing discarded in a pile of rubble? Authorities at auction house Sotheby’s say it was stolen from their warehouse in 1987, ten years after it was purchased by a Houston man for $55,000 as a gift for his wife. The couple had temporarily stored it there while they moved, and expected to get it back.

The artwork, an oil on canvas with sand and marble dust mixed in, was the subject of an all out search, with entries on it in the databases of the International Foundation for Art Research and the Art Loss Register. The owners even offered a $15,000 reward. But for years, no one knew what happened to it, until Gibson came walking down that street.

The owner is now a widow and is putting the infamous work up for bids. Experts expect it to fetch up between $750,000 and $1 million. And Gibson will share in that largesse. In addition to the $15,000 reward, she’ll get a cut from the proceeds of the sale. “I would say it was an appointment with destiny,” the amazed woman concedes. “I just knew it meant something. … It was extremely powerful, and even though I didn’t understand it. I knew it had power.”

Not to mention money.

Gibson was literally at the right place at the right time. A doorman who saw her retrieve the work recalls that garbage collectors came by the area just 20 minutes after she found it.

The auction will be held next month.

Photo courtesy: Sotheby’s