Two donated paintings fetch big bucks for Goodwill

You've heard the expression: One person's trash is another person's treasure. No words were ever truer than at a Goodwill outlet in Toronto. Among the tons of castoff clothing, appliances and knickknacks were two oil paintings. The keen eye of the store manager spotted something special about them and as it turns out, she was right on the money.

CTV Toronto: Tom Hayes on Goodwill's big haul

Two paintings donated last fall to Goodwill has raised more than $130,000 for the charity. Tom Hayes report.

CTV News Channel: Scott Laurie explains how Goodwill obtained the pricey pieces of art

Two paintings that were anonymously donated to a Goodwill store in Toronto are set to be auctioned off for thousands of dollars, which could be the largest donation the thrift store has ever received.

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ctvtoronto.ca

Date: Tuesday Jun. 9, 2009 7:05 PM ET

Second-hand store Goodwill picked up over $150,000 on Tuesday as two paintings that were anonymously donated at a Toronto location fetched tidy sums at an auction.

Someone dropped off two paintings by Peruvian artist Federico del Campo at the Goodwill location on Dundas Street near Islington Avenue last fall, according to Goodwill spokesperson Mitzie Hunter.

The paintings were put aside in a shopping cart for the store manager to assess and price.

"As they were looking at the item to price it, they noticed it was a special piece," Hunter told ctvtoronto.ca. "Once we checked out the name of the artist and realized he was well known, we decided to get it appraised."

Waddington's, an auction house that specializes in appraisals, valued the paintings at $30,000 to $50,000 each.

But when the auction ended at the International Art Auction, one painting sold for $80,700 while another sold for $78,400.

CTV's Scott Laurie told News Channel that many bidders from Europe took part in the auction by telephone.

"They suspected at the beginning of this that the bidder would likely be in Europe -- someone who has heard of this painter, someone who may be a big fan of his work in Venice and these scenics," Laurie said.

Both winning bids came from overseas, he said.

Del Campo, who died in 1927, moved to Italy to develop his art. He was known for his highly-detailed fine depictions of Venice. The two paintings are each sized at roughly 60 by 42 centimetres, and feature the Venetian canal.

Hunter said prior to the auction she believed it will be the largest donation in the organization's history.

Goodwill didn't attempt to contact the donor to make sure they knew what they were giving up.

Hunter said the charitable organization received more than 2,500 donations every day.

She said it's normal for people to donate to Goodwill but agreed that it was "rare" to receive a donation of such great value.

The money, she said, will be used to further Goodwill's job support program which helps teens, people with disabilities, immigrants and others who have difficulty finding employment.

"There is such a high need, particularly because of this economy, for jobs and job support so we're going to put it towards that," she said.

Comments are now closed for this story

FB TORONTO
said

I think the Good Will should have contacted the donor ! Probably do not know what the paintings were . Remember the name of your organization ! GOOD WILL !!!!

Unlucky Joe
said

Oops...

Brent in Toronto
said

To FB Toronto: Good Will donations get dropped off anonymously. Unless one of the staff members just happened to know the person who dropped them off, there would be no way to contact the donor.

WB
said

Goodwill definitely didn't exercise goodwill in determining if this donation was a mistake.

Sanche
said

I disagree, they shouldn't have to contact the person. If the person didn't know what he/she was donating, that's his/her own fault.

Gareth Seltzer
said

I think Goodwill is an extraordinary organization and am constantly reminded how lucky we are that they serve our community. However, it also seems like a civic and moral obligation to at least attempt to contact or find the donor so that the value of the donation is understood and appreciated. If you ask for a donation, and somebody appears to give you two $20's and you look and actually the second bill is $100 - you would ask the person if they meant to give you that bill or was it actually supposed to be two $20's. I am a little disappointed to hear that Goodwill seems to have so easily written off the importance of - at the very least - being seen to have attempted to validate the intention of the donor. Let's hope it was either their intention or they don't like watching the news.

Greg
said

Its up to the donor to check out items value before giving them away. Its not like they were dropped off accidently. The donor went to Goodwill to give the pictures away. If they did it knowing or not knowing what they were giving away it not GoodWill's responsibilty to find out to he true intention of the donor.

PC
said

Goodwill, what are you thinking?
boohoo

Chris Ont
said

Exactly Brent,
It would be difficult to track the donor down, and most likely he/she did not know the value. Might be the real owner had passed away or just left stuff behind when they moved away and everything left was donated.

Besides, looking at them I would not have guessed the value.
As well they would have clashed with my decor, the $20.00 pictures on my wall look better

Bill Moyer Trenton
said

Goodwill should take the high road here and ensure that the donor knew exactly what they were donating. It is the morally responsible thing to do. I will watch this closely to see if Goodwill is of sufficient calibre to garner further donations from my home.

KP
said

Most people buy this kind of stuff at garage sales, flea markets and the like and then do the leg work to discover what the true value is. (We see them on Antique's Roadshow a lot). I am sure Goodwill has sold off for a couple of dollars similar finds.

Daniel
said

If material possessions can help the needy, then that's great.

JP in Ottawa
said

SOOO.....if you bought Something for 5 Cents at a garage sale and you found out it was worth 10 grand you would split it with the person or return it to them!!!! what ever. You would sell it and reap the rewards. And the goodwill will spend that money to good use! it is not going to go to some CEO's pocket....wake up people!

Catharine
said

I am shocked that Goodwill made no effort apparently to locate the donor. Especially after they discovered the value. So what if the original owner didn't realize value.

WOW, I am stunned at Goodwill. This is very bad press.

Gareth Seltzer
said

To Greg - If you traded in your car - and it turned out you left your watch in the glove compartment, you are saying that would be tough for you - whether you "did it knowing or not knowing". And it would not be the dealer's responsibility to know if it was your intention to trade in the car with your watch. They just get a free watch. I have to disagree. I think we all have an obligation to each other - and in law, intent is the basis of our justice system. "Mens rea" means essentially, that you are responsible for an action if you intended it - or in law, that there was mens rea. And - if that was your car, you would get your watch back. Intent is how we judge most things and why we forgive many as well. I would ask you to rethink whether your answer is really how you feel - or just a gut reaction of tough beans.

Nat
said

I think that the Donor knew exactly what he /she was giving. A lot of people like to stay anonymous and I think this is exactly what happened here. Good for GoodWill.

Tom (Ottawa)
said

It's a 2-way street on this issue. Maybe the donor did know the value of the paintings or maybe they did not. Maybe GoodWill should contact the donor or proceed with they present course.

It is my understanding that someone at GoodWill knows who the donor is, and if the donor does read the news and made a mistake they would come forth to the location and person they donated the paintings to and claim it was a mistake. The person(s) at GoodWill will know if this is the initial person to drop off this donation to begin with or not, so there is no way of scamming GoodWill on this account. If no one shows up by the time it hits the auction floor then the person has forfeited they right to reclaim the art pieces.

Simple not complicated. Some people do not want the publicity and that is why the donations were dropped off in this manner.

Cambob
said

If I donate a lotto 6/49 ticket to GoodWill, and it subsequently wins... So what? Goodwill has no obligation to contact me. And Bravo!! to the GoodWill manager who was smart enough to spot these values. Luckily, the art was not damaged in handling or otherwise devalued.

janfromnorthvan
said

At this point in the story it could be anyone coming forward to claim that they were the donor. I don't see what the organization could have done. They never even knew they were valuable for quite awhile. The donor was long gone. I do not fault Goodwill but if there is someone out there who can prove they have a claim to the paintings such as family history or photos of paintings in their home etc. I say that Goodwill should honor their request for return if that happens. Remember the woman who bought a large Pollack painting awhile back at a garage sale for a laught she thought it was so ugly. Ends up being worth 100's of thousands. She could have given it back to the original owner but didn't.

rose
said

According to the article the items were dropped off anonymously, so they couldn't find the donor. What do you want them to do, take out an ad and get tons of people saying they had been the donor?

I'm glad GoodWill had the ability to spot that they may have value, they may have been put out and sold for a small amount and someone else might have reaped the benefit. GoodWill does very good work, and in that we all benefit!

Greg
said

Gareth your example is different then donating the paintings. The donor intended to donate the paintings. If I traded in a car with a watch in the glovebox, is different, I intended to trade in the car but I forgot about the watch. If the dealer were to turn around and sell that car for considerably more then what they gave me for it then that would be the same case which they do all the time and they don't give refunds.

People have to take responsibility for what they do.

Bill
said

The paintings may have been stolen. That possibility alone is why Goodwill should have sought to clarify the ownership and donorship. This is bad news for Goodwill and will affect donations in the future. It obviously also affects any tax benefits the donor would have received from giving to a charitable organization, presuming Goodwill has a charitable tax deduction number... It's very unlikley the donor would have donated knowingly because there was no indication given to Goodwill that this was a "special" gift that would provide extra benefit to the organization, either. So why knowingly give something of value if the recipient is unliklely to receive the value.

Goodwill should do the right thing and seek out the owner, for moral, legal and public relations purposes.

Lois in Ontario
said

Is Goodwill a registered charitable organization?Whether or not the donor knew the value, I think they should at the very least try to locate the person and offer them a charitable tax receipt. It could have been done if they wanted to. Ad in paper "would the kind and generous person who dropped off 2 paintings at... please call us at xxx xxxx - Your anonymity will be protected." They'd look better if an effort was made, and volume is not an excuse. This was not a bag of old clothes.

Chester Pape
said

This is a tough one, anybody who's ever donated to Goodwill will realize that there's no way Goodwill can be assured of who the donor was, lots of stuff gets dropped off without the donor having any interaction with the Goodwill staff.

The unfortunate reality is if Goodwill had attempted to publicize these and seek to confirm the donation they would have wound up having to sort through all kinds of false claims.

I think given the way they operate the decision they have taken is a reasonable one.

It is sad though that in all likelyhood these were "donated" by someone who didn't know what they were, I've recently had very negative experiences with supposed professionals staging estate/downsizing homes for sale trying to throw out stuff that the heirs/owner had identified to go to storage just because they thought it was old and therefore garbage and were in a hurry and didn't want to take the extra time to take things to a storage locker. For some elderly people they could really use the money but they won't get the chance, not because of intentional malfeasance but because too many people in the real estate game are just lazy and half-assed and ignorant.

Colin from Regina
said

Cry me a river. If you give something away it doesn't matter what the value is, you gave it away. Goodwill isn't the antiques roadshow.

Earl-Fredrick
said

If something is thrown away, it means its a garbage for them and they don't care about its value anymore. If it costs millions, what's the fuss?

Dana
said

Hey - you snooze, you lose. If this wasn't an intentional gift, then this is just like every other case we hear where someone finds something valuable at a garage or rummage sale. I think this is brilliant news for Goodwill. They do a great job in the community and can always use a wonderful financial boost like this!

anji
said

The paintings likely were not stolen. The person who appraised them would have conducted a search as part of the process of appraising... there are places where stolen artwork are reported so that they can not be sold (on the regular market, the blackmarket however, another story)....