Michael J. Mullen/Scranton Times-Tribune, via Associated Press
Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art in Scranton, Pa.
Posted on 03/14/2006 4:07:52 AM PST by Pharmboy
Michael J. Mullen/Scranton Times-Tribune, via Associated Press
Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art in Scranton, Pa.
Everhart Museum, via Associated Press
"Winter in Springs," a drip painting attributed to Jackson Pollock.
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. — Unlike the problem posed in 2003, when a cache of 32 supposed Jackson Pollocks was found in a storage bin on Long Island, this Pollock problem began when a painting attributed to the artist suddenly disappeared.
About 2 a.m. on Nov. 18, 2005, "Winter in Springs," a 40-by-32-inch drip painting attributed to Pollock, was stolen from the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art in Scranton, Pa. A silkscreen work by Andy Warhol, "Le Grande Passion," also disappeared in the break-in, which remains under investigation by the F.B.I. and the local police.
The owner of "Winter in Springs" is Arthur Byron Phillips, a Scranton native and longtime resident of East Hampton, who says he purchased it from Mr. Pollock for $800 in 1951, at the artist's home here in the Springs section of town. In 2003 he lent it to the Everhart, a small museum that offers botany collections, children's science exhibits and a gallery of American artworks under the same roof.
But "Winter in Springs" was never authenticated and is not in the the four-volume catalogue raisonné, or complete listing, of Pollock's work, regarded as the definitive word on authenticity. Nor was it insured. Authenticated Pollock works of similar size sell for about $10 million.
And on the heels of the biggest art theft in the history of Scranton (population 75,000), the authenticity of Mr. Phillips's painting is now being questioned. "People are sort of following it like a sport," said the Scranton mayor, Christopher A. Doherty. "First there was the heist. Now there's these suspicions about the Pollock.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Mystery/Art ping...
Looks like this used to be a nice painting -- until the birds pooped all over that storage bin!
That would be you Dupas.
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