Unknown Fact

Unbeknown to Rue, his father too had the painting appraised in the year 1988, a decade earlier than the roadshow. In that evaluation, a curator at the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) too had revealed to him that the signature was irregular and didn’t match other signature by the same artist. What the people at that time didn’t know was that therein lies the true value of the painting.

Evaluation

The appraiser, Colleene Fesko was looking more carefully at the irregular signature as if the whole truth of the painting resided inside it. She raised her eyes to Rue’s and said something that made him question his theories that he was making from the moment he had thought of selling the painting. What was so unique about the signature?

Statements

Rue was still looking at her as he was curious to know the unknown facts about the painting. But it seemed like the appraiser had lost words and finally when she became to her senses, she said: “Well, there are two extraordinarily intriguing words in an artist’s catalog of paintings…” she began. What did she mean by that?

“Whereabouts Unknown”

“And those words are ‘whereabouts unknown’,”Colleene said. Rue too had become more attentive trying to what she was saying. “My understanding of the painting’s history is that it was painted in 1904,” she continued, pausing for effect, “…by Diego Rivera”. This painting by the artist was one of the most important works of the 20th century. Interestingly, he was only 18 years old at that time.

Information

The young man had given all his ears to the lady as she told him more about the painting. “And there were, I think, only three or four paintings known from that early time…the painting is signed here as ‘Diego Rivera’, 1904. And what’s interesting about the signature is it’s a very young man’s signature.”  He was surprised at this revelation, what else was there which was yet to be unraveled.

Obsessed

Rue remembered that his father had become obsessed with the painting when he was alive. He used to read every autobiography and paper ever written on the hedonistic Mexican muralist. There were basically 3 influential muralists in the 20th century and those were Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Siqueiros. The trio was called “los tres grandes”.