Goodwill painting fetches $165,000

Yahoo! News
A painting dropped off at Goodwill [in Portland, OR] by an anonymous donor sold for $165,002 Thursday during an auction on the organization’s Web site.

Bidding on the painting, a 1923 watercolor by the American impressionist Frank Weston Benson, started at $10 on Oct. 12. The bidding soared after the painting was authenticated by the owner of a Portland gallery. The name of the winning bidder has not been revealed.

Dale Emanuel, spokeswoman for Goodwill Industries of the Columbia-Willamette, said that the nonprofit gets a lot of valuable donations, but that it’s unknown whether the person who dropped off the painting knew its worth.

“We get donations that have come through the generations of a family, and as it goes from one person to the next the true value may not be understood,” she said. “I’ve seen that many, many times.”

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