August 5, 2011

A long but interesting and somewhat humorous week.

The heat continues as well as the sticky humidity.  I think we've broken some kind of record for consecutive 90+ days.  Woo hoo (not really).

On friday I made an lunch hour excursion to the Goodwill.  I am a yard-sale, bargain bin, clearance rack, thrift store junky.  Hey!  I have horses to feed, so why pay full price when you can get it for half or less?  A fashion diva I am NOT.  I have four outfits for work, and rotate them.  I figure my coworkers have a pool where they bet on which of the four I will wear that day.  The odds are pretty good, at least 25% that someone will get it right.  Anyway! So I have fifteen minutes to cruise through the Goodwill store.  I thought I'd look for some horse related prints for a decorative project I have in mind.  I spot two that look like paint by number, my hand falters...nah, those even assault "my" sense of style, and the paint horse looks kind of muddy orange.  Something catches my peripheral vision (which is very good), something in bright primary colors.  I knock some of the dust off and this is what I have.


It has been professionally framed in a heavy brushed steel frame,  double matted, and is signed in the right hand corner, and has the name in French on the back in old typeface, dated 1956.   It's $3.99 (I can afford that) and I figure I'll do some research and find out what I have.   I get on the internet and google Miro, and look at signed prints.  HOLY CRAP!  $$$$$$$$$  I feel suddenly dizzy.  I've left that thing out in my unlocked car and the internal temperature is soaring...probably 200 degrees out there.  I've potentially scored a signed Joan Miro' and it is baking in my car.    I tell the girls in the office that I might have made a find...the office catches the excitement.  People are googling and finding signed aquatints in the $30, 000 + range.  I hold it up to the light at every angle and it looks like it is on water color paper.  I lovingly clean the glass just in case. Then I polish the glass. I'm thinking,  ride for a year and take a leave of absence because I'm selling it.  The artwork rides home with me.  My husband who is a better artist than Miro' looks it over and agrees that it has been very expensively framed.  Would cost several hundred dollars in this economy to frame the little print as nicely now as it was in 1956.  I ponder on it.  I web research like mad and can't find this particular work.  Finally I snag a couple of emails addys of some modern art appraisors and send them a photo, asking for information.  This afternoon one actually replies out of the kindness of her heart that I have a lovely, bonifide, beautifully framed mass produced print from the 50's.  So this woman works for a gallery, right?  Well of course I have to make sure.   Breaking into this frame was like getting into Fort Knox.  Eight heavy stainless screws to remove, inner and outer corner brackets, explode the frame and carefully remove.....

...the absolutely worthless mass produced print.  Ta da!  And then I laughed, and continued grinning most of the afternoon.  It was a treasure hunt.  It was fun.  And my absolutely priceless Miro' mass produced print now hangs proudly in the office.  I've decided I will look for MORE OF THEM.  Maybe start my own little gallery here at Endurance Granny headquarters.  Still not riding, but life is good . ~ E.G.

1 comment:

  1. LOL, I was hanging on every word. I thought for sure you stumble onto something big.

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