Dallying

The Khool
Earlier this week, Erin had blogged about art heists and the mystery and motivations of the thieves.  It got me thinking about how people treat art and remembered that I have my very own story to share.  ::Cue dream sequence music::

In high school, I had joined up with a hodgepodge group of students, kids really, who got together on a monthly basis for volunteer activities (not the kind of community service where you're picking up litter on the side of the highway in orange jumpsuits, don't worry).

One particularly chilly and drizzly Saturday morning, we drove to a lady's house out in the older part of town.  Pulling up to her driveway, we were confronted with a scene straight out of Hoarders.  Imagine that the contents of every rummage sale in the world was stuffed into a garage.  Then imagine someone took the garage, picked it up and shook it.  There were garbage bags and cardboard boxes piled from wall to wall and higher than I could see over.  Coming around the corner, we could see additional outbuildings in the backyard that were overflowing and in a similar state.

We were ushered into the house, which I expected was going to be overrun with cats but was surprisingly uncluttered, where we met a lady, the founder of an organization whose mission was based on improving the conditions of orphanages and providing medical attention to orphans in Romania.  The garbage bags and boxes were full of donated items that were given to the charity during the year, and she instructed us to sort through them and pick out items that could potentially be resold.

Each of us was handed a pair of work gloves and we got to it.  One thing teenagers can do without much instruction and supervision is sifting through mounds of junk looking for something of value.  It's called - what happens when you drop something and you haven't cleaned your room in months.

While I was rummaging through the stacks in the back of the garage, something fell over with a clatter.  By the pale light that filtered through the back of the building, I could hardly see that the object that had fallen to the floor - a black and white etching, about the size of an 8 by 11 sheet of paper, in a simple wooden frame.  The etching was clean and modern and the drawing was completed with only a few dark lines - a man on a horse.  Curious as to what the piece was and who it was by, I turned it over and my heart caught in my throat.

Pasted to the back of the frame, underneath the wire strung across the two ends, was a certificate authenticating the sketch as an original Salvador Dali.  In a daze, I walked it over to the head of our volunteer group and after several short exclamations, he quickly whisked it inside.  The sorting became much more vigorous after that and at the end of our shift, we were taken back inside.  The lady, quite breathlessly, explained to us that she had immediately called Christie's and they were sending an appraiser out to examine the piece.  All proceeds from the sale would go to the orphanage, and she was in tears as she enveloped me into a warm hug.

To this day, I still wonder if the person who donated the etching knew what they were giving away.  Or if it got jumbled in an estate sale and ended up in the back of the garage by chance.  It's as romantic as I let myself get, thinking about my brush with Mr. Dali.

Comments

  1. Okay that is AWESOME! And you held it in your hands!! I have always wanted to find an abandoned-in-a-garage-sale valuable painting, haha. Best story ever.

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  2. Oh...my...gosh! Am speechless....

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  3. If I was a bearded lady.... I would totally grow a mustache like that dude's.

    And holy cow. What an experience!!

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  4. What a great story! I really with they lady would have been "...oh little Rooth, why don't you go ahead and keep it since you found it" Still, a great story.

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  5. wow, nice story. I wouldn't forget that either :)

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  6. Wow! That was an amazing and priceless experience!
    I'm a Dali fan. I enjoy watching his interviews on youtube. :)

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  7. I always look through old stuff hoping I would find something like this but have never been lucky enough yet, great find though!

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  8. This is such an exciting story! I don't actually know who Dali is (going to google asap) but still... to find something of that value! Amazing!

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  9. That is awesome! I think I would die on the spot if I suddenly grabbed an original sketch by Dali. i can't believe it was just sitting in a pile of junk!

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  10. Interesting story. As the saying goes, one man's junk is another man's treasure. Would have loved to know the outcome. ¡Viva Dalí!

    LUXESSED

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  11. AMAZING! It's one thing to see something like that in a museum or collections storage, but to FIND it and hold it in your hands...Wow! Greatness attracts greatness--it was fate. There aren't many high school students who would have: 1) bothered to check for the artist's name; or 2) recognized it. I got whatever culture I had at that time from Bugs Bunny, so....

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  12. That story is seriously amazing....I can't help but wonder as well what the story behind it was, how it came to be there, unnoticed.

    http://thelittletexan.blogspot.com/

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  13. What an incredible, and heart-warming story.

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  14. Such a great story! I wonder if I knew who Dali was in high school or if it wasn't until later. Great find though, I hope it raised a lot of money for the charity!

    It would be such an interesting back story to find out how it got there.

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  15. That is just about one of the coolest things I've ever read! Neel loves to torment Callum by pausing the remote control for the barest of longer hesitations when Antiques Roadshow is on... just to torment that poor child. But. It's hard not to get sucked into those amazing moments, isn't it?

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  16. Wow. Awesome story! I've heard of these things happening but to have it happen to you? That's awesome.

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  17. What a great Story Rooth! It is something I dream about when rummaging through flea markets ;)

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  18. Ooh, I do so love a good intrigue! And to think, you held an original Dali in your hands!

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  19. That's incredible, Rooth! Whoa! Good thing you're honest otherwise you could have pocketed it. That's such a sweet story.

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  20. I've always been a big fan of Dali. This is such a crazy story!

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  21. Holy moly!!! That is soo nuts! How cool is that though?! Seriously. :)

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  22. What an incredible story, Rooth! You weren't the least bit tempted to fold it up and put it in your pocket. I kid! I think it's every person's dream to find the hidden treasure at rummage sales. I'm always hoping some unknowing person will cheaply sell off their Eames lounger and ottoman. Sadly, I haven't hit the jackpot yet.

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