Artists
Related: About this forumSotheby's just sold my painting at auction this morning.
Unbelievable! You can't imagine how much it sold for. I'm in shock.

SheltieLover
(66,824 posts)

FalloutShelter
(13,278 posts)So happy for you! It's a BFD.
ramblin_dave
(1,559 posts)Something you painted or found in an attic? Sold for how much?
bif
(25,224 posts)IrishAfricanAmerican
(4,232 posts)Congrats!
LoisB
(10,193 posts)babylonsister
(172,004 posts)
Phoenix61
(18,293 posts)Response to bif (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
drray23
(8,207 posts)I am happy for you guys. I think you can retire if you are not already..

PatSeg
(50,098 posts)It looks like it sold recently.
https://www.sothebys.com/en/artists/francis-newton
highplainsdem
(55,527 posts)Congratulations, blf!
RobertDevereaux
(1,989 posts)In the early 1980s, Landscape (Red Building) came to be offered at a charity auction in Detroit, the home city of Schuster. The auction was organised to benefit the St Johns Fontbonne Auxiliary, the sponsoring congregation of Detroits St Johns hospital, which remains an active charity to this day. Souzas 1955 cityscape went unsold but was spotted and bought by a discerning local collector and aesthete and has remained in the same family collection ever since. !!!!
bucolic_frolic
(49,952 posts)Inflation is not just in oil and the stock market.
And no wonder people are now advertising and buying art from the 70s-90s, hoping for a payday tomorrow.
CaptainTruth
(7,561 posts)Enjoy your windfall!
Lisa0825
(14,489 posts)


lillypaddle
(9,605 posts)Are we having a party???
irisblue
(34,879 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)Kidding of course. Congratulations on your sale. How cool is that!
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)My oven tried to burn my house down
twice!
It takes two months to get a new one. Hot dogs for thanksgiving.
sinkingfeeling
(55,077 posts)Javaman
(63,665 posts)Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)I love a happy turnout!
RestoreAmerica2020
(3,461 posts)..[unless you were the owner of the Picasso piece, then ay caramba !] read DU post on your art purchase some 30yrs ago; nice to see that your investment paid off ..great story, great find--congratulations!
Paz.
robbob
(3,686 posts)I might
I might
brer cat
(26,901 posts)Enjoy your unexpected turn of fortune.
PatSeg
(50,098 posts)Congratulations.
hibbing
(10,420 posts)fierywoman
(8,279 posts)






MLAA
(19,144 posts)




cate94
(2,952 posts)Congrats!
edhopper
(35,813 posts)Auggie
(32,224 posts)🍾
bif
(25,224 posts)I paid $100 for it in 1980.
yonder
(10,058 posts)
Now, about that 20 bucks I loaned you last week......




OneCrazyDiamond
(2,058 posts)That's a hell of a capital gain.
gademocrat7
(11,427 posts)What a wonderful windfall!
barbtries
(30,349 posts)want to share your artist name, so I can check you out?
I hope it was so much you're set for life!
wryter2000
(47,808 posts)Plan a cruise and tell us where all you're going to go!
MomInTheCrowd
(339 posts)From the article "In the early 1980s, Landscape (Red Building) came to be offered at a charity auction in Detroit, the home city of Schuster. The auction was organised to benefit the St Johns Fontbonne Auxiliary, the sponsoring congregation of Detroits St Johns hospital, which remains an active charity to this day. Souzas 1955 cityscape went unsold but was spotted and bought by a discerning local collector and aesthete and has remained in the same family collection ever since."
LiberalLoner
(10,956 posts)Beastly Boy
(12,046 posts)Just drop me a line, and I will tell you all about myself.
I also happen to be a Nigerian prince who urgently needs to transfer a million dollars out of the country, but we can talk about it later.
DFW
(57,806 posts)My dads mom collected modern art in the 1940s and 1950s. Living artists with names like Alberto Giacometti.
When she passed away in 1966, all the grandkids could pick one painting or sculpture. My cousin wanted a Giacometti bronze, but it was assessed at $16000. My aunt and uncle couldnt afford the (then-) applicable 50% inheritance tax of $8000. The sculpture came up for sale some 40 years later, and brought $4 million.
I was always fond of an abstract blue painting by an artist who died AFTER my grandmother did, and so my parents only had to pay $300, i.e. half of the assessed $600.
Well, fast forward, and the artist who did my painting now has his own room at the MoMa. BUTsince my grandmother bought her painting directly from the artist, the NY art snobs said my painting had to be a fake. They kept that up for years until I finally found a photo of the artist sitting in a Paris gallery (the one that issued my grandmother the bill of sale), with him and the gallery owner sitting under MY PAINTING!
Long story short, I decided I had had enough of the painting, and sold it. As an inheritance kept for more than one year after acquisition, I owed the Germans nothing (THERE was a first!). But the IRS came and said I owed 31.8% on the gainbe prepared, by the way, you might be in a similar position. Consult a tax attorney! You might not like the news, but its better than being called in for tax evasion down the road. Besides, whats left over will be one hell of a sum, too.
So, I paid the IRS their 31.8%, and then gave my brother and sister and each of their spouses $50,000 each, spreading it out to be under the yearly limit for gift tax. Nothing they inherited was worth six figures, and the last thing I was gonna do was flash my good fortune in their faces.
Ergo, I ended up with a sum that was less than half what the painting sold for, but I got something even more valuable: a great relationship with my siblings for life, plus some insurance that I could pay all my daughters education bills in the States.
Thanks for sharing!
Skittles
(163,598 posts)yes INDEED
electric_blue68
(21,019 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)What painting? And how much? Are you getting too good for us?
bif
(25,224 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)I wish you the best of luck on selling it!
Yorkie Mom
(16,577 posts)Congrats!
malaise
(283,281 posts)Congrats
tavernier
(13,640 posts)
Congratulations!!
femmedem
(8,506 posts)I'm so happy for you and your wife!
Midnight Writer
(23,746 posts)SergeStorms
(19,585 posts)"a discerning local collector and aesthete" in our midst! You have a good eye for art, bif. Some people just recognize genius when they see it. Congratulations.
Sotheby's will take a generous portion of the sale price for their troubles, but they have a very long reach to connect buyers with sellers. They're the absolute best at what they do.
Don't go turning republican on us now that you're in a different tax bracket. We know you won't. Do good things with your new found wealth.
bif
(25,224 posts)I not only get 100% of the selling price, but 1% of the buyers fee! Plus it didn't cost me a dime for shipping and framing. And my rep travelled to India with the painting and showed it to some of her wealthy clients.
Don't worry about me turning Republican. My wife and I are going to designate several charities to donate to.
SergeStorms
(19,585 posts)If I may ask? Usually in the 23-25% range, aren't they?
bif
(25,224 posts)I thought it was around 6%. But I have no idea.
Historic NY
(38,874 posts)stuff just hidden away doing nothing. Our historical people turned some unwanted, unloved furniture into cash for a surprising amount at one of the tony connected galleries upstate NY. We have lots of painting that have been stashed away for decades.
ancianita
(40,342 posts)
lark
(24,937 posts)You hit the jackpot! Congratulations!!
MontanaMama
(24,392 posts)I love when good things happen to good people.
Tom Yossarian Joad
(19,275 posts)I have dealt in rare books and other ephemera and love to see things like this.
3catwoman3
(26,547 posts)You must still be pinching yourself.