Thrown away painting in US worth £500,000

A painting which was stolen and discarded as rubbish in the US is expected to fetch around £500,000 (€719,389) at auction next month, Sotheby’s said today.

Tres Personajes, painted by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo in 1970, was stolen more than 20 years ago and found on a Manhattan street by New Yorker Elizabeth Gibson.

Ms Gibson, 53, rescued the masterpiece from between rubbish bags set out for morning collection four years ago, unaware that it had any significance until much later.

“I know nothing of modern art but it didn’t seem right for any piece of art to be discarded like that,” she said.

She later saw an appeal for information on the work on the Antiques Roadshow FYI television segment in the US.

It will now go under the hammer at Sotheby’s on November 20 and is expected to fetch between £375,000 (€539,524) and £500,000 (€719,389).

The painting was purchased by the current owner at a Modern Paintings sale at Sotheby’s New York on May 11 1977, and then stolen in autumn 1987.

August Uribe, who made the TV appeal and will conduct the sale for Sotheby’s, said: “This has been nothing short of a miracle.

“The fact that such an important painting, missing for a generation, was rescued in this way – and in such pristine condition – continues to astound me.”

The FBI’s Major Theft Squad is still investigating the theft.