oddly enough

oddly enough

Goodwill auctioning purported Dali print

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.

A Colorado Goodwill store is auctioning off a purported lithograph of a Salvador Dali work that someone donated.

But the Grand Junction store says it doesn’t plan to verify the work’s authenticity.

A customer at the store recently pointed out the signature on the print of “The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus,” which was numbered 168 out of 300.

Manager Bill Atwell told Denver’s KMGH-TV he doesn’t know who donated the piece.

Atwell says the store is “here just to raise money for our programs,” and it isn’t going to pay an expert to determine if the work is authentic. He says the store instead will let people bid for the piece and determine its value on their own.

As of Monday afternoon, bidding had climbed to $550.

The original painting is in the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla.

City threatens suit over man’s treehouse

GOLDEN, Colo.

A suburban Denver man has until Monday afternoon to tear down an elaborate backyard treehouse local officials say is hazardous.

But sculptor Duncan Foss of Golden says he’s not taking down the hangout he built for his 11-year-old daughter, which includes a rambling series of bright-blue decks and elevated boardwalks.

Local building officials consider the structures a hazard. Indeed, part of the treehouse burned in December because of an exploding tiki torch.

But Foss told The Denver Post he won’t tear down what remains of the structure.

City officials say if Foss doesn’t comply by Monday afternoon, they will pursue legal action.

Boat-towing gator sets record for Fla.’s longest

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.

A man who trapped and killed an alligator so big it pulled his boat around a lake has snared what authorities say is Florida’s longest gator on record, exceeding 14 feet.

Wildlife officials say the gator caught by Robert Ammerman, a nurse who traps gators as a hobby, weighed 654 pounds and measured 14 feet, 31/2 inches. It was caught Nov. 1, the last day of Florida’s alligator harvest, in Lake Washington near Melbourne.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says the previous record was a 14-foot, 5/8-inch alligator trapped in 1997. The state’s heaviest gator on record was taken in 1989, weighing 1,043 pounds.

Ammerman said the gator thrashed and pulled his boat for about 45 minutes after being harpooned and took two hours to tow to dock.

Associated Press