Art experts... is my $12 Goodwill purchase authentic?
 

Bought a Paul Klee work recently from Goodwill... frame is old. Paper is old. I found a photo of a similar piece, but not this particular one. I haven't taken it out of the frame yet. There's a sticker on the back that says, "Premiere Art Galleries, Springfield." Best I can tell there is no such business currently operating.

What do you think? $100K? $200K?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298916664.jpg

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That's cool- could be the catch of the day- Anything he did would be old since he's been dead over 70 years- there are several books out there about him so I'd swing by the nearest Barnes & Noble or the most exclusive gallery in your hometown.

Let us know how that works out.

I'll give ya $15 for it.

My first thought is that it is most likely a print...second a litho of some sort.

Looks like a print to me too but I'm no art expert

I'm no art expert, so... is that some sort of hoity-toity abstract of Barney the dinosaur?

A litho(graph) is a print.

I feel a pain in the azz...note not up the azz...

Looks like a poster to me ($10-$20). If it were genuine (signed/numbered) litho, it could be worth anywhere from $5k to $50k+.
If it were an original, we are talking big money. We just had 3 Klee (pronounced more like "klay" BTW) originals go thru our auction house (I'm on the RE side) this month alone. They sold for $1.34MM USD, $1.75MM USD, and $1.67MM respectively. We had two Klee lithos thru this past October They sold for $28k USD and $17.5k respectively.

What auction house are we refering to? I have probably done biz wid dem...

I'll give you my 993 for it.

If it turns out to be the Big Find will you help Goodwill profit from the find?

They already did profit - $12.

Dang, you beat me to the punch. I was going to offer a well sorted 944... ;)

I'll trade you my one-of-a-kind Porsche factory racing prototype 1972 targa for it. I have it on ebay right now, but I'll cancel my listing if you want.

Porsche : 911 - eBay (item 230590115840 end time Mar-06-11 18:00:00 PST)

Getting to know me, your seller: I let you know all of the following not to somehow impress you (not that it necessarily would), but rather to demonstrate that I have a reputation to uphold, which I also rely on for business purposes. I am an Ivy League graduate. I am in my mid-30s. I am a serious fellow, and I've been on the national and local TV news giving unpaid and unsolicited financial market commentary; also been in major national newspapers and magazines doing the same. Most recently, I was quoted in AARP magazine. There is nothing being hidden about this car, as so many people do. You don't get 100% positive feedback over 11 years of registration by hiding things. If there is something you should know about this car of which I am aware, it's available to you in the auction. I go out of my way to make sure people are satisfied. Look at my specific feedback...look how the guy who bought the truck recently said, "You can trust Seth with your eyes closed." I work hard to make sure I get comments like that; I don't take it lightly, and it means a tremendous amount to me. I look forward to getting to know you if you'd like me to (or if you'd like to buy the car without me getting to know you, that's OK too!)!

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Mr Ivy League must be hard up...."the battery is not included with the car"

Lee - you are in phoenix - so get in touch with the Scottsdale Art Auction/Legacy Gallery/Brad Richardson - he can help you - he is an honest dealer - and although he doesn't deal with a lot of cubism/expressionism if he doesn't know - he is part of a large network, and can at least get you in touch with someone who would know how to authenticate your piece.

It does look a bit like Klee's later work - when he used lots of bright colors, heavy lines and geometric shapes - it looks a little too 'representational' for his later work, his work was fairly abstract by then, but, he was a pretty quirky and a prolific artist (over 1,000 pieces in 1939 for instance). It also doesn't look like a typical early Klee signature- however, his signature varied a lot throughout his life, and is somewhat similar to this in the 20s - 30s - when he was doing work a bit more similar to your piece - his early work had a more 'blocky' signature.

However - find out from an expert -
7176 E Main Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
(480) 945-0225

It would be pretty exciting if that thing turned out to be worth big wonga. Here's hoping it is.

That's art? Well, f&@# me!

Sotheby's.

Here are the three pieces that just sold this month:

Sotheby's - Auctions - Calendar - Looking Closely: A Private Collection
Sotheby's - Auctions - Calendar - Looking Closely: A Private Collection
Sotheby's - Auctions - Calendar - Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale


I slum it on the RE side:
Luxury Real Estate & Homes for Sale | Official Sotheby's International Realty® Site

Not knowing that a "litho" is a print, I bet they just love ya! :D

not necessarily. there's a difference between a hand lithograph ,and an offset lithograph.

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder! No really. Alcohol is probably responsible for more auction-buyer's remorse than you could imagine. Of course, it's kinda hard to go wrong @ $12.00. :D

More info...

No... it's not the melanoma on my back. A close up of the black section in the hull of the largest sailboat.

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Finally got up the nerve to take it out of the frame. On the reverse:

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Hard to tell from the photo:

Is the artwork behind glass?

Is the artwork mounted behind a mat (with a window cut out through which the artwork is viewed)?

If not, is the artwork flat against the glass? High quality artwork is never mounted that way because condensation will eventually damage the artwork.

The last pictures apear to be the artwork still attached to its frame with glazing points and the backing paper torn away. It looks like the side of the artwork is bent up to fit into the frame. Not very professional; usually the artwork is taped to the back of its mat at the top and only extends a minimal ammount past the window. If there's no mat and the artwork is valuable, the framer would have put spacers around the edge of the glass to prevent contact.

If the artwork is a signed and numbered, hand pulled lithograph, see Eric Coffey's post as to value range.

If it's an offset litho, it's a cheap poster (which I suspect, given the quick and dirty framing job).

I hope I'm wrong, though. SmileWavy

Finger crossed that you have a treasure...

Good luck Lee! This will be fun to follow.;):cool:

Seems to me that even great art can be mismounted.

Charlie Sheen/Denise Richard come to mind.

I was gonna say Berlusconi

Any updates? After looking at the pics, the signature "in the plate" is not a great sign. Probably the easiast way to rule out a print (and confirm a reproduction) is to look at it under magnification. If you can see any kind of benday pattern (dots), then it's a fugazi.

Ben Day ... Benday Dot Technique Explained » ATom1746 Blog ...who knew?

No dots. Just what appears to be ink layered on top of other ink. If you look at the section of black in the photo (which is magnified 200x) you can see the second layer of black along the top. Not sure what that means.

I've tried to find examples of what various types of art (lithograph, serigraph, etc) should look like under strong magnification, but have struck out.

Zentrum Paul Klee in Switzerland will give me their opinion for 150 Swiss Francs, plus 1000 Francs if it's real.

neat find....... maybe............. ........

Need to find one of them antiques roadshow things ;)

Send the info to Pawn Stars and have them review it, you may be on TV!

I just got an email back from our in-house valuation department (appraisers) specializing in this period.

Here is the response:

"The method used to print this work is silkscreen, which does not have the mechanical dots of more contemporary methods of reproduction. My sense is that there was a number of silkscreen reproductions made of Klee’s work in the 1960s and/or 1970s. I doubt it was much earlier than that as you really don’t see silkscreen much before the 60s, although it was certainly around.

In any case, I am afraid this is a reproduction that does not have any value.

Sincerely,

Blake Koh"

Wow Eric! I really appreciate you running this by an expert. Please tell him I said, "Thank you." You saved me a lot of time and trouble as I was about to cart this thing all over town having it checked out.

Let me know when you're free for lunch... I definitely owe you one. SmileWavy

Should have taken the 993.