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$10 Goodwill Buy: $15K Painting

Sotheby's to auction Ilya Bolotowsky work

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 23, 2012 11:27 AM CDT | Updated Jul 28, 2012 12:49 PM CDT

(Newser) – During a visit to Goodwill, a North Carolina artist spotted two large abstract paintings selling for $10 each. That's a quarter of the price a brand new canvas would have cost Beth Feeback, and she figured she could easily paint over them with her subject of choice—cats with big eyes. Good thing she didn't: After Googling the name found on the frame of one painting at a fellow artist's recommendation, Feeback learned that Ilya Bolotowsky was actually a well-established 20th-century painter.

Feeback told Sotheby's about the find, and they said they'd be willing to auction it off—for an estimated price of $15,000 to $20,000, the Charlotte Observer reports. Now Feeback, whose own career hasn't been particularly lucrative, is eagerly awaiting the painting's planned Sept. 21 sale.

Pedestrians walk past the Goodwill store in Moline, Ill., on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.
Pedestrians walk past the Goodwill store in Moline, Ill., on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011.   (AP Photo/The Dispatch, Paul Colletti)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
shaboom
Jul 28, 2012 3:48 PM CDT
"Her own career hasn't been lucrative?" What, ...noone wants twee, trite paintings of cats with big eyes?
DJGOJIRA
Jul 28, 2012 12:53 PM CDT
real talk, there are some gems at Goodwill, most of them on VHS.
Yourself
Jul 24, 2012 10:21 AM CDT
and now Goodwill will see a bump in people trying to find paintings... what shocks me the most is given all the smart phones people have, that no one ever thought to check the names on them before... 
 

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