This sold for 10 cents in 1938.
Posted on 12/04/2016 10:13:48 AM PST by EveningStar
Two agents from U.S. Homeland Security’s ICE unit arrived at my door in September looking for a Polish lady — not a person, but a painting: Melchior Geldorp’s “Portrait of a Lady.” She had, they informed me, been looted by the Nazis from the National Museum in Warsaw.
Unsure if these gentlemen were indeed who they claimed to be, I didn’t invite them in. But I knew exactly what they were seeking: My partner, David, and I had purchased this very portrait — ostensibly the work of a different artist — a decade earlier from a major auction house in New York.
Upon their leaving, I stood dumbfounded, holding a packet of information about the alleged provenance of our painting. After calling David at work to drop this bombshell, I began a Googling frenzy, eventually bringing me to Poland’s Division for Looted Art website. Seconds later I was gawking at an old black-and-white photo of our beloved lady, a beautiful portrait painted on oak panel in 1628. Tears welled in my eyes with the realization that, without question, if this were true we needed to do our duty and get her safely home.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Poland was threatening war. /sarcasm (or maybe not)
I thought that was Franco Harris after the immaculate reception.
This sold for 10 cents in 1938.
http://www.thepinkswastika.com/5294/index.html
Here’s a book about it.
Does the Warsaw Museum have title proving ownership (in a straight line) from the artist (c.1650’s), to c.1939?
Personally, I’d like to see that evidence. It’d be neat.
They should switch to painters that are abundant. The guy who painted Dale Earnhardt Sr. on black velvet cranks them out all of the time and nobody steals them.
Yeah, a $450 giclee is a great consolation.../S
Davy liked it.
He has a shirt collar just like the one seen.
Did you read? Second d paragraph.
One other important part of this story that didn’t seem to be discussed is that this guy and his partner did not develop a conscience about the painting until the feds showed up on his doorstep. Probably slept like a baby before that,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gnwiTm4hRQ
I just watched the immaculate reception video, again, and I still don’t know how that happened or even what happened.
They have been that way my whole adult life.
We’ve just never had a candidate, let along a President, with the balls to jam their b.s. right back down their throat.
What a fine thing that turns out to be.
It should be. I made the nozzles the Iris Graphics printer used.
I hope they got to claim a loss on their tax return or somehow got some monetary compensation.
.
>> “Yeah, it looks like really ugly woman dressed up as a poodle.” <<
Ruth Bader Ginsburg wearing her “protest collar?”’
.
I read the first paragraph, clicked thru and apparently started on the third paragraph. Missed the 2nd 'graph entirely.
That works too.
I have done that so many times! It’s all good ; )
The guy has class
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