Dumpster Diver Finds $1m Painting

by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 10.25.07
Business & Politics (news)

Dumpster%20Diving%20art.jpg

While dumpster diving may be an environmentally virtuous way of meeting your needs, especially when using a bicycle, it is still considered by many as being a little cheap or unsavory. However, an article in Tuesday’s New York Times may well change a lot of people’s perceptions about this oft-maligned alternative to shopping:

It’s hardly a place you would expect to find a $1 million painting. But one March morning four years ago, Elizabeth Gibson was on her way to get coffee, as usual, when she spotted a large and colorful abstract canvas nestled between two big garbage bags in front of the Alexandria, an apartment building on the northwest corner of Broadway and 72nd Street in Manhattan.

The painting, which Gibson took home and hung on her wall, turned out to be a famously stolen piece by Rufino Tamayo, and the article goes on to describe Gibson’s adventure, from her slow realization of the truth, through constructing a false wall to hide her treasure, and ultimately turning it in to Sotherby’s. While Gibson won’t reap the benefits of the expected $1m price tag as the picture goes to auction, she will be receiving a $15,000 reward, and a modest finders fee. Not bad for a bit of dumpster diving. Thanks for the tip Mairi!::New York Times::via site visit::

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Comments (4)

such a great sunshine story =)

jump to top supra mkiv says:

There's no dumpster diving invloved here at all.

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Author's comment:
How so?

jump to top Anonymous says:

Yeah I wouldn't count picking up curbside items as dumpster diving.

jump to top Pat says:

This is BS.

jump to top JOE says:

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