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| Magnolias on Gold Velvet Cloth by Martin Heade from duke.edu |
"Magnolias on Gold Velvet Cloth", a painting by Martin Johnson Heade, purchased by the Museum of Fine Arts for $1,250,000.
"This is an important rediscovery, and the painting is a magnificent example of Heade's work at its best,'' said Theodore E. Stebbins Jr., author of the 1975 catalogue raisonne of Heade's works.
The painting was authenticated by the Kennedy Galleries in Manhattan. According to its president, Martha J. Fleischman, ''What sets this apart from his other magnolia painting is that there's a little bit of leaf mold on one of the leaves, like a beauty mark.''
the Lucky
He prefers to remain anonymous. The only information about him is he's from Indiana, about 30 years old and works in a tool-and-die company.
the Place and the Time
The painting was sent to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on March 1999, well preserved and still in its original frame. The museum's director called an emergency meeting with the board of trustees and the purchase was approved in less than an hour and a half.
How in the world!?
The previous owner bought it years ago for "next to nothing". He found it quite useful, using the painting to hide a hole in one of his walls. One day, he was playing the boardgame, "Masterpiece", and a piece that looked a lot like it came up. He then contacted the Kennedy Galleries to have it authenticated.
It's interesting to note that there are other Heade paintings discovered this way:
- Thunderstorm on Narragansett Bay was found in an antiques store in Larchmont, New York in 1943.
- Magnolia Blossoms on Blue Velvet and Cherokee Roses were purchased at an estate sale in Arizona for $60 in 1996.
- Two Magnolias on Blue Plush was originally purchased for $29 at a rummage sale by a Wisconsin man in 1989
- Two Heade paintings were discovered in an attic, one in Boston last 2003 and the other in Massachusetts, 2006.
According to Stebbins, "One of the things that has always made the study of Heade's work exciting is the way his paintings continue to turn up in garage sales and other unlikely places all over the country, in a manner that the paintings of Frederic E. Church and John F. Kensett do not." He thinks this could be because of Heade's willingness to distribute his works and popularity with middle-class buyers.
Sources:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/30933
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Johnson_Heade
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/04/arts/painting-packs-a-million-dollar-surprise.html?pagewanted=1
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