I love to read stories like this where great blessings come to those in need. This "accident" couldn't have been written any better if you made it up! I wonder if a wife took "that old painting" her husband liked and just gave it away? Wouldn't you love to know "the rest of the story?"
Painting Left At Goodwill Auctions For $40,000
POSTED: 9:22 am PDT June 26, 2008
EASTON, Md. -- An old painting dropped off at a rural Maryland Goodwill store turned out to be a work by a French Impressionist. And now, thanks to the sharp eye of a store employee, the charitable organization is $40,000 richer.
The Parisian street scene, left at the store in March along with daily donations of pots, pans, old clock radios and other items, turned out to be a work by Edouard-Leon Cortes, probably from the early 20th century.
The painting -- called "Marche aux fleurs" or "Flower Market" -- was sold for $40,600 at a Sotheby's auction a few weeks ago.
"It could have very easily ended up put in a pile, marked for $20," says Ursula Villar, marketing and development director for Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake Inc.
Store manager Terri Tonelli said employees asked her to look at the donated painting because they suspected it was valuable. She found the artist's name on Google and discovered that Cortes was a notable French Impressionist whose work had sold at auction for prices near $60,000.
If the owner of the painting wants the money, he or she may be out of luck. Goodwill says it doesn't keep track of donors. Donations, meanwhile, are gifts that are considered legal and final transactions.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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