Masterpiece in trash will be sold at auction

Masterpiece in trash
will be sold at auction

NEW YORK — A painting stolen 20 years ago was found lying in trash along a street, and now it could fetch up to $1 million at auction. Elizabeth Gibson didn’t know anything about the brightly colored abstract work she spotted on her morning walk four years ago on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It turned out to be a 1970 painting titled “Tres Personajes” (Three People) by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo, whose work has soared in value in recent years. A Houston couple whose names were not disclosed purchased the work — an oil on canvas with marble dust and sand worked into the paint — in 1977 at Sotheby’s. It was stolen in 1987 from a warehouse where they had placed it while moving. August Uribe, Sotheby’s senior vice president of Impressionist and modern art, said in an interview Tuesday that the husband paid $55,000 for it as a gift for his wife. He has since died and she is putting it up for sale. Sotheby’s said it could bring up to $1 million when it is sold at its Latin American Art auction on Nov. 20. Gibson will receive the $15,000 reward the couple put up when it was stolen, plus an undisclosed percentage of the sale of the painting. Gibson said she learned of the work’s worth when her research led her to the Web site of “Antiques Roadshow FYI,” a companion program to the PBS show “Antiques Roadshow.” Uribe had featured the painting on “Antiques Roadshow FYI’s” Missing Masterpieces segment.

Today’s birthdays

Football Hall-of-Famer Y.A. Tittle is 81. Rock musician Bill Wyman is 71. Actor-producer David Nelson is 71. Actor F. Murray Abraham is 68. Actor Kevin Kline is 60. Former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is 59. Country musician Billy Thomas (Terry McBride and the Ride) is 54. Actor B.D. Wong is 47. Rock musician Ben Gillies (Silverchair) is 28. Singer-actress Monica Arnold is 27. Rhythm-and-blues singer Adrienne Bailon (3lw) is 24.