IS IT A REAL RENOIR?

A woman went to a West Virginia flea market and spent $7 for a box of trinkets . But what she didn’t know was that she actually bought an original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who is one of the most popular and most successful artists of all time. The woman said that she bought it not for the painting but for its frame . Before she threw the painting away she made an appointment with an auction house. She wanted to learn if it was valuable . When the woman went into the auction house, she pulled the painting out of a garbage bag. Anne Norton Craner, who is a fine arts director at the auction house, said that when she saw the painting she was sure that the painting was a Renoir with its distinct colours, light, and brushwork. A sign on the front was labeled “Renoir.” She wanted to be sure so she found the catalogue which had all Renoir’s paintings. Painting No. 24349 turned out to be Renoir’s Paysage Bords de Seine (1879), translated as Banks of the River Seine . After its discovery, the lady decided to sell it at auction on September 29, 2012. She was expecting to sell the painting for $75,000 or more. Everyone was curious about how the valuable work of art ended up at a flea market. After weeks of research, Craner discovered the story of the piece of art. Renoir gave the painting to a woman who modeled for him. The painting was then sold to the Bernheim-Jeune Art Gallery in 1925. The following year, as far as Craner can tell, the gallery sold the painting to an American lawyer, Herbert L. May, who kept the painting in his personal collection until his death in 1966. Because stolen artworks cannot be sold, they cancelled the auction. Will the woman who bought the painting for $7 get to keep it? Investigators will decide who really owns the painting.