While Sotheby's has a policy of not identifying bidders (winners or losers), the owner of Rehs Galleries Inc. in New York - currently home to about 10 Cortes paintings - said he made the second-to-last bid on the painting.
"It just got too expensive," said Howard Rehs, who owns the gallery with his father, Joseph. He said he did not know who made the winning bid.
Rehs was the winning bidder, though, on a second Cortes painting, a winter scene, sold in the same auction for $37,500. His gallery is probably the biggest dealer in works by Cortes, whose paintings have become more highly prized in the past nine years, Rehs said.
"He was always appreciated as an artist, but people are now beginning to see the importance he had," Rehs said. Though Cortes is best known for his Paris street scenes, his landscapes, still lifes and other paintings have become more sought after as well. Many of his works can be seen on the gallery's Web site (http://www.rehs.com/cortes-virtex.htm).
Rehs said he wasn't totally surprised by the painting ending up in a Goodwill store. He remembers selling a high-priced original painting to the Ritz Carlton chain that ended up in a Hawaii hotel. At a sale of the hotel's contents, a man purchased the painting for $5.
"You hear stories all the time where some customer in a Goodwill store buys something for $10 that turns out to be worth thousands. In this one, I guess Goodwill makes the profit, so this is kind of nice. It's very good that someone there knew what they were doing."
Tonelli, though, says she's no art expert, and she credits her entire staff for finding fine art amid the piles of household goods:
"It was really a team thing All I did was Google it."
john.woestendiek@baltsun.com
