"Who the #$&%…?" Revisted
#$&%! Has it sold?
I decided to do some follow-up research on an article I posted awhile back about the possible Jackson Pollock painting featured in the 2006 documentary Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? Retired truck driver Teri Horton purchased the work for five dollars at a California thrift store in 1992. After enduring more than a decades’ worth of frustration over the American art world’s refusal to authenticate her provenance-less find, last November Horton handed the painting over to Gallery Delisle in Toronto, Canada, in hopes of finding a buyer. The price tag? A whopping 50 million U.S. dollars.
So—has it sold? The lack of information about a sale tells me no, plus Gallery Delisle still lists Jackson Pollock as one of the artists it represents.
Found in a Goodwill donation bin: Federico del Campo, The Sunlit Venetian Backwater with Gondaliers, 1895
During my searches, I uncovered a somewhat related story about two paintings discovered at a Toronto Goodwill store that sold at auction last month for over $150,000; Goodwill received $134,000 from the sale. In Fall 2008, a clerk spotted the paintings in the donations sorting area and, though she knew little about art, recognized they were special and pulled them aside. Manager Helen Zhuang shared her reaction when she first saw them: “I touched the painting and I sensed something different.”
Zhuang noticed the paintings were signed and dated (1895) by Federico del Campo. She did a little research and learned Campo is a renowned Peruvian artist known for finely detailed Venetian scenes. She consulted with Waddington’s auction house in Toronto, and art expert Susan Robertson authenticated the paintings. Waddington’s then sold the works to an anonymous European phone bidder.
Found in a Goodwill donation bin: Federico del Campo, A Venetian Canal with Santa Maria Della Visitazione and Santa Maria del Rosario, 1895
Goodwill didn’t attempt to try and contact the paintings’ anonymous donor, which most likely would be an impossible task. The sales profit will be used to further Goodwill’s job support program that helps teens, people with disabilities, immigrants, and others who have difficulty finding employment.
The del Campo paintings were authenticated relatively quickly, particularly when compared to Teri Horton’s saga. Granted the works are signed and dated—and sold for much less than 50 million U.S. dollars. However, Zhuang’s comment that she sensed “something different” when she touched the del Campo works is significant. In Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?, Thomas Hoving similarly comments that Teri Horton’s painting does not “sing” like a Jackson Pollock. Touch, sound … Great art is powerful enough to engage multiple senses.
