The Italian auto worker who had a Paul Gauguin masterpiece hanging in his kitchen for decades without knowing the history behind it has spoken out about how he landed the piece. He also had a work by Pierre Bonnard.
As previously reported, Italian art authorities have identified the two pieces - Still Life of Fruit on a Table With a Small Dog by Gauguin and The Girl With Two Chairs by Bonnard - as works stolen from a British couple in 1970. They are worth a combined $50 million. Officials are working to figure out who should receive the paintings, since the British couple unfortunately died without heirs.
Meanwhile, the worker recently explained to La Repubblica how he ended up with the works, reports the BBC.
“They were bought in good faith,” the man, identified as “Mr. Nicola,” told the paper. “Above all, they were bought through the state, and the institutions can't deny this.”
The paintings were found abandoned on a train and ended up in an auction. Nicola decided to go and won the two for 45,000 lira. While that wasn’t a small sum for a factory worker, he explained, “I've always loved art. Instead of going to the cinema or the bar I prefer to put aside my money and go and look for curiosities and objects in the markets or the little auctions.”
Nicola explained that he took the paintings with him when he retired to Sicily. He said that he never really knew the history behind them, until his son discovered a book about Bonnard that featured an image of their painting. They then spoke with experts, who contacted police.
He knows that it’s unlikely that he’ll get to keep either of them, but he likes the Bonnard the most. “To my children I've always said, 'If you love art, art will repay you,” he told La Repubblica.