Blue Chip,
Yet more problems for eBay:
Renoir, oui?
Thursday, March 25, 1999
A painting sold through on-line auction site Ebay Inc. for $34,600 has caused experts to dispute whether it is truly a Renoir.
Entitled Young Bather Seated in the Wood, the work was described as a study painted on paper circa 1883. But the painting doesn't appear in a guide to the artist's work, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"I can't find this painting in our archives," said Ruth LeGrand, an archivist at the Wildenstein Institute in Paris, the body responsible for cataloging Renoir.
Looking at photos of the item posted on Ebay's site, Mimi Somerby, director of the Beadleston Gallery in New York, said, "In my opinion, that doesn't even look like a Renoir. . . . Even with his hands tied up, Renoir could not have painted that with his tongue."
The seller, Aurel Ceciu of Erie, Pa., said the painting is authentic, and is part of his family's collection, compiled starting in the 1920s. He said the painting hung in his family's home in Quebec for as long as he can remember. "It's because the painting hasn't been on the market in so long that it isn't in the catalogue," he said. The buyer's identity has not been disclosed.
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