Displaying items by tag: anonymous

During the holiday season donations to Goodwill start pouring in; one location in Federal Way, Washington got more than they bargained for this year. A signed etching by the pioneering Surrealist artist, Salvador Dali, was dropped off by an anonymous donor and quickly identified by employee, Shea Munroe. The piece was added to Goodwill’s online auction system for a mere $999 and the price has continued to soar. It is currently listed on the organization’s auction site at $18,525. The auction ends tonight, November 19, at 7:30 p.m. PST.

Authenticated by Period House Appraisal Service in Tacoma, the framed color etching titled, Reflections, is from the artist’s The Cycles of Life Suite and features one of Dali’s famous melting watches. Signed and numbered “126/150,” the piece is also labeled as an “etching and photolithography from collage.” Although the work’s paper is slightly warped due to humidity and there is some discoloration to one part of the matting and a few scratches and scuffs to the glass and frame, the etching will undoubtedly sell for an impressive price.

Goodwill trains their employees to look for potentially high-value items and asks that they put aside any signed items or pieces with paperwork attached. Other valuable items that have appeared on the Goodwill auction site are a Rolex watch that sold for $900, a diamond ring that reached $12,000, and a Frank Weston Benson watercolor that fetched $165,002 in 2006, the most valuable piece to sell online to date.

This past Sunday, Montreal's Place des Arts and the stage troupe Finzi Pasca unveiled a mural by Salvador Dali that has remained out of public view for sixty years. Measuring 29 ½ feet by 40 feet, the backdrop was painted for the 1944 ballet production “Le Tristan Fou (Mad Tristan),” a take on “Tristan und Isolde,” while the Surrealist artist was in exile in New York. The backdrop made an appearance in London in 1949 and then fell out of sight until an anonymous European foundation re-discovered it three years ago.

The rare piece was restored but rather than exhibit it in a museum of gallery, the foundation offered it to theater creator and circus master Daniele Finzi Pasca for use in an upcoming acrobatic stage production. Pasca decided to incorporate the painting into “La Vérità,” a story inspired by “Tristan und Isolde” as well as Dali’s exile, the 1940s cabaret scene, and the Dali’s wife and muse, Gala.

Members of the public can take a closer look at the Dali backdrop at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Place des Arts on Wednesday, November 7. La Vérità, featuring the Dali backdrop will premiere at the theater on January 17, 2013.

The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles has acquired a number of 18^th and 19^th century prints by James Ensor (Belgian, 1860 – 1949) and Jean-Jacques de Boissieu (French, 1736 – 1810). An anonymous collector gifted the works to the museum. “Prints are a significant collecting priority for us,” said Marcia Reed, chief curator of special collections at the Getty. The gift will flesh out the museum’s already impressive Ensor holdings and will add a solid representation of Boissieu’s work.

Among the Ensor prints are three hand-colored etchings that are exceptional examples of his work from the 1890s, the period that is considered to be his artistic peak. Two of the three prints were inspired by Edgar Allen Poe stories and bear the skeletons, masks, and crowds of people that Ensor often included in his work. The Getty already has a compilation of Ensor’s correspondence and manuscripts including 100 signed postcards and letters, 16 prints, and his masterpiece, Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 in its collection.

The gift of Boissieu’s work includes 23 etchings that span the artist’s career. Well-known as a painter and draftsman, Boissieu was also a renowned printmaker and was highly regarded for his work during the 18^th century. The collection includes several sheets of Boissieu’s studies of heads – both human and animal.

The Getty Museum plans to host a major, monographic exhibition of Ensor’s work in 2014. The show will include the prints gifted to the Research Institute.