Art Dealer Says He Discovered Six De Koonings in New Jersey Storage Unit
- July 23, 2018 15:06
A storage locker filled with artworks that an auction house passed up is said to include lost abstract expressionist paintings that could be worth millions of dollars.
From the Guardian:
A New York art dealer who bought the contents of a New Jersey storage locker for $15,000 says he has found six (unsigned) paintings he believes are by Willem de Kooning.
David Killen, who runs an eponymous gallery in Chelsea, told the New York Post he believes he also found one work by the early 20th-century Swiss-German modernist Paul Klee.
According to the Post, Killen bought the contents of the Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, locker last year. The paintings were originally from the studio of art conservator Orrin Riley, who died in 1986, and his partner, Susanne Schnitzer, who died in 2009.
“What are the odds of finding a De Kooning in a storage unit?” Killen asked. “It’s unheard of!”