Italian Pensioner Gets to Keep Gauguin, Bonnard Works
- December 15, 2014 12:43
An Italian pensioner who unknowingly bought a stolen Gauguin for about $35 has been allowed to keep it after it was valued at $50 million.
The anonymous man bought two works for a pittance in 1975 at an auction of lost property in Turin. They turned out to be an 1889 Gauguin entitled Fruits on a table or still life with a small dog, and a work by Pierre Bonnard entitled Woman with two armchairs, now thought to be worth $850,000.
The paintings originally were owned by Mathilda Marks, the daughter of Michael Marks, the founder of British retailer Marks Spencer. She died in 1964 and the paintings were stolen in 1970 from the flat where her American husband lived in Regent's Park, London. The thieves had abandoned the works on a train headed from France to Turin.
