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Show PLUMBER BOUGHT A C0H0T And Art Deal Which Family Condemned Con-demned Netted a Profit of $71,000 for His Estate. It would seem that the plumber's capacity for making money Is not necessarily nec-essarily confined to his business. Wllllnm B. McCormlck, writing In Arts and Decoration, tells of one with nothing except his Instinct to guide him who bought a superb Corot that enriched his estate by many thousands of dollars. During the exhibition of a famous collection of art objects In New York, twenty-five years ago, the attendants In the gallery where the collection was shown noticed nn unfamiliar and not very well-dressed man spending a considerable con-siderable time each day In front of Corot's "Lake Neml," one of the pictures pic-tures In ,the collection. On making Inquiries they found ho was a well-to-do plumber, wholly unknown In the picture-buying world. It appeared later thnt he told his family be Intended Intend-ed to buy the painting If possible and there was n line family row over the matter. Out he stuck to his plan and on the night the canvas came r.p for sale It was knocked down to him for $14,000. As long as ho lived his family never forgave him for his extravagance. ex-travagance. Hut they were forced to change their opinion of his action later. lat-er. For when the painting was sold after his death It brought $85,000. No single Investment of this man's lifetime life-time ever brought him so largo a profit. |
