A New York woman salvaged an oil painting from the thrash four years
ago, thus returning a stolen masterpiece by Mexican artist Rufino
Tamayo to its rightful place in the world.
A 1970 oil painting by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo titled “Tres
Personajes” (Three People”) was stolen more than 20 years ago and could
have been destroyed forever had it not been for Elizabeth Gibson, a New
Yorker.
Four years ago, Gibson was on her way to coffee when she noticed the
painting among garbage bags set out for morning collection in her Upper
West Side neighborhood. She walked a few more steps forward but was
compelled to return and take the piece of art.
Tuesday, she told Reuters that at the time, she “immediately knew I had
to go back. I knew I had to take it!” She explained, “It was a huge,
powerful and beautiful painting and I said to myself, ‘It is wrong to
be in the garbage.’”
She
did take it home and she even hung it on a wall. However, it was during
some research on the Internet that she came upon the website of
“Antiques Roadshow FYI,” a companion program to the PBS show “Antiques
Roadshow,” reports Reuters.
“Tres Personajes” appeared on the website, featured by Sotheby’s expert
August Uribe. The painting had been stolen more than 20 years ago.
Gibson then returned the Tamayo painting to its owners, who wish to
remain anonymous. The original owner’s widow has decided to put it up
for sale; it is expected to fetch between $750,000 and $1 million when
Sotheby's auctions it on November 20, according to Reuters.
Elizabeth Gibson will reportedly receive a $15,000 reward for returning
“Tres Personajes,” as well as an undisclosed percentage of the auction
price.
Rufino Tamayo was born in 1899 in Oaxaca de Juárez, México. He lived in
New York from 1937 to 1949, and then in Paris during the 1950s. He
spent the remaining half of his life in Mexico and died in 1991.
He experimented with Cubism, Impressionism, and Fauvism, but remained profoundly influenced by his Mexican origins.
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