Tres Personajes

Tres Personajes 'Pendejos', second version (English: "Three Characters") was painted by Mexican Modernist artist Rufino Tamayo in 1970. The brightly colored 51" by 38" (130 cm x 97 cm) painting is considered to be significant as an example of Tamayo's mature style. It is an abstract depiction of a man, a woman and an androgynous figure in a rich palette of purple, orange and yellow, with Tamayo's signature rough surface texture, made of sand and ground marble dust mixed into the paint.[1][2] The artist died in 1991 at the age of 91.[3]

Theft and recovery

Tres Personajes was bought by a Houston man as a gift for his wife in 1977, then stolen from their storage locker in 1987 during a move.[1] In 2003, Elizabeth Gibson found the painting in the trash on a New York City curb.[4] Although she knew little about modern art, Gibson felt the painting "had a strange power" and took it without knowing its origin or market value.[1][5] She spent four years trying to learn about the work, eventually learning from the PBS website that it had been featured on an episode of Antiques Roadshow. After seeing the Missing Masterpieces segment about Tres Personajes, Gibson contacted the former owner, who arranged to sell the painting at a Sotheby's auction.[1] In November 2007 Gibson received a $15,000 reward plus a portion of the $1,049,000 auction sale price.[4][6][7]

Notes
  1. "One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Lost Masterpiece", by Carol Vogel, October 23, 2007, New York Times. Retrieved Apr 16, 2010.
  2. "Stolen Tamayo Found in Manhattan Trash May Sell for $1 Million", by Lindsay Pollock, Oct. 23, 2007, Bloomberg. Retrieved Apr 16, 2010.
  3. Bone, James "How a ‘skip-rat’ managed to turn rubbish into a $1m work of art". The Times (London), 24 October 2007
  4. ULA ILNYTZKY (23 October 2007). "Painting found in trash could fetch $1M". USA Today. Associated Press.
  5. "Painting Found in Trash Sells for $1M". The San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. November 21, 2007. Archived from the original on November 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
  6. Charlotte Higgins (24 October 2007). "Stolen masterpiece found on New York street". London: The Guardian.
  7. Lisa Gray (November 6, 2007). "Finding Tamayo painting was result of fate". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
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