Goodwill Painting Sparks Online Bidding War

WSMV ^ | January 23, 2009 | Regina Raccuglia

[fallingwater]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Susan McCullen spotted a treasure buried in a bin and smashed in with items tossed as trash.

"I saw just the edge of the gold," said McCullen. "It was sort of mid-depth in, and I reached in and bent down to look and saw it was flat enough to pull it out, and I saw the frame and the matting, and I said, 'Oh good, original art.'"

Online research revealed the painting is an original 1907 watercolor by New Orleans artist Ellsworth Woodward. "He and his older brother William were very instrumental in the arts and crafts movement," she said.

Woodward created the Felucca Capri more than a century ago.

The donor is a mystery, but Goodwill is thankful none the less.

"For us, I'm happy. In a way, to me, it's a sad statement to me, because it could have been an estate and maybe someone wasn't aware of what it was," McCullen said.

Adding to its value is a surprise behind the brushstrokes.

"It wasn't until I got it back to my desk and turned it over that I saw the envelope on the back that had the letter that was handwritten by the artist," she said.

The artist himself valued this rare Felucca Capri at $75, but it's launching a national bidding war online.

"(Thursday) morning it was about $1,500, and now it's over $5,000," said McCullen.

"We don't know who these people are, but we do know there is someone in Nashville and there is someone in Washington State who have been bidding back and forth," said Suzanne Kay-Pittman of Goodwill of Middle Tennessee. "This money goes directly to our mission, and this money funds what we do."

Bidding ends Sunday.

[JoeProBono]

Multicolored Lotus

Ellsworth Woodward (1861-1939)

c. 1920

Watercolor on board

[goat granny]

Hi JPB Beautiful picture, I shop Goodwill all the time. Once found an Lucite purse for 3 dollars and sold it on eBay for 140.00 I hope you don't mind that I have set this picture as my wallpaper on my computer....

[JoeProBono]

“I shop Goodwill all the time.”

Me too. I’ve found some amazing stuff.
Nice choice of wallpaper!

As a matter of fact, I think I’ll drive my Felucca Capri down to Goodwill on Monday to see what came in over the weekend ;-}