Posted on 04/29/2012 10:18:23 PM PDT by nickcarraway
When Frank Faryab bought an obscure oil painting for thousands of pounds in a private sale, it was just the start of his outlay on the work.
For the art and antiques dealer has since spent more than £2million and much of the past five years trying to convince others it was by JMW Turner, one of Britain's greatest painters.
The perseverance appears to have paid off - because three leading authorities on the artist work now agree it is a lost Turner masterpiece which could be worth about £4million.
Experts at the auction house Sotheby's will examine the painting in detail next month and may accept it for sale. The highest price ever fetched by a Turner work is £29.7million.
Mr Faryab, who lives in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, was tipped off in 2007 that the painting might be by Turner, although it was sold as a minor work by another artist 'in the manner of Turner'.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
That was quite the gamble. Good thing it worked out for him.
Even if I had the money, I don’t think I’d spend two million dollars on a chance that a painting I own was worth only four million dollars.
Well, it sure as heck LOOKS like a Turner! Pretty unmistakable style there. No wonder he snatched it up.
Reminds me of a story . . . . Years ago, my husband and I were with my dad (a huge art buff) in a small art museum in France. I looked at a painting on the wall and said something like, “Goodness, that looks like a Degas.” We looked at the tag; it said “De Gaz.” My quite knowledgeable dad said there was no way it could be a Degas; what would a real, rather large Degas be doing in this podunk museum? With no security? (We probably could have walked out with it if we had put some thought to it.) I said, but dad, look! It looks like a Degas. And it says De Gaz, I pointed out — maybe that’s a variant on the name? My dad sniffed and said it wasn’t possible.
So . . . when we got a chance to get on the Internet, we checked it out. It WAS a Degas, and a famous one at that: the only one Degas painted while on a trip to the USA.
It was really fun watching my dad eat his hat . . . . ;o)
4 Million?
For The Pieta, sure.
The vast majority of other art and “art”, not so much.
The so-called art market is more about what others think than what one thinks oneself.
Hope everyone buys his bona fides.
I thought Turner was a watercolorist or am I just confused (as usual)?
With the conversion:
He spent $3,253,000 USD, assumed to be worth $6,506,000 USD, but probably more.
As I said, it was a gamble that paid off.
Supposing he had spent the money and found out that it was Joe Schmo that painted it?
I am guessing this guy knows his stuff?
It obviously wasn’t a random selection, like you read about people buying paintings at garage sales and finding out that it was some lost Rembrandt.
It was an educated guess done by some guy knowledgeable in this area, but it could have still not worked out for him. There are some incredible paint forgeries that have fooled the experts.
He spent two million pounds, considerably more than two million dollars.
The painting pictured reminds me of the style of Albert Bierstadt, renowned 19th century German-American painter of luminous landscapes.
Yes, about $3.2 million dollars.
Which makes his actions even more incredible.
****like you read about people buying paintings at garage sales and finding out that it was some lost Rembrandt.****
Reminds me of what happened in Tulsa, OK back about 40 years ago when an unemployed man saw a $45.00 painting in a junk store. He managed to rake enough money to buy it as he thought it was a Winslow Homer painting. It WAS a Winslow Homer painting!
It was reported in the Tulsa Tribune or World at the time.
For The Pieta, sure.
Add a couple of zeros... and maybe.
It is priceless.
Most other “important art”...
Meh.
IIRC, in addition to shouldering the cost of upkeep, the Vatican carries those works on it’s books for something like 1 Euro each. The philosophy being that they consider the works as being owned by humanity and see themselves as caretakers only.
The painting pictured reminds me of the style of Albert Bierstadt, renowned 19th century German-American painter of luminous landscapes.
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I love Bierstadt! I have a poster of one of his paintings framed in my living room. But I have to say the painting in the photo really does seem very Turneresque to me. That whole jumbled-up golden & pink light in the center is way Turner. :o)
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