Binned painting fetches $US1m

A painting found in a pile of rubbish on a New York street sold at Sotheby's auction house overnight for $US1 million. The sale came nearly 20 years after it was stolen from a warehouse in Texas.

Tres Personajes (Three People) is a 1970 work by Rufino Tamayo, one of Mexico's best-known artists. A north American buyer bagged it for exactly $US1,049,000, after fighting off a telephone bidder.

The painting was saved from the garbage by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted the work while out walking one morning in 2003.

She found the piece, measuring 98 by 130 centimetres, in perfect condition.

"It was a Saturday morning. I went out for a coffee at 7:00 am. I saw it on the sidewalk among black plastic garbage bags," she told AFP ahead of the sale.

"I passed my way and had my coffee, but a voice inside kept telling me to go back and take the painting. So I stopped reading my book and I went back and took the painting, which had a very bad frame but was in perfect condition."

The work, with bold strokes of red, purple and yellow, was bought for $US55,000 in 1977 by a Texas man for his wife's birthday.

The couple put it in storage while they moved house and noticed the painting was missing in 1987 when picking up their belongings at the warehouse.

Where the painting went for the next 16 years remains a mystery, but for several months after discovering it, Ms Gibson kept it on the wall in her apartment.

Tipped off by a friend that the painting could be valuable, Ms Gibson started investigating.

On the internet she discovered that the work had been featured on US television show The Antiques Roadshow, in a segment on missing paintings.

Ms Gibson approached Sotheby's, which helped return the painting to its original owner. They remain unidentified.

Ms Gibson received a $US15,000 reward for helping secure its return and is to receive an undisclosed sum from the sale.

Federal FBI detectives, meanwhile, are still investigating the case. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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