Antonio Martino Oil Painting, ca. 1955
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GUEST:
Well, we had just moved, and we were looking for some filing cabinets. So we went to a sale of office equipment. And I liked the picture, and decided that we would buy it. It wasn't very expensive. And we bought the filing cabinets. Then it went upstairs to the loft, because some people didn't like it in my house. It goes up and down from the loft according to who has the more persuasive argument to bring it down.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles) It's a great buy for $25. So you did some looking already about Antonio Martino. What can you tell me about him?
GUEST:
Not very much. Just he was a local guy. I think he died in the '80s.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, he was born in 1902 and he died in 1988. And as a painter, he had a long, successful career. He started having fairly good commercial success in 1925, and that continued through the '60s. This particular work is going to be from the '40s or later, more in his mature style. His early paintings look more like the Pennsylvania Impressionists that are quite famous, Redfield and Schofield, and those are the most successful works in the auction market.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
These later works you can see a bit of the cubist influence. The forms get a little more simplified, although the colors are still bright. This particular painting is titled on the back, "Gloucester, Mass.," so it tells us exactly where he is. I think at auction right now, for an oil painting like this, you're looking at about $5,000 to $7,000.
GUEST:
Wow. Are you sure about that? Maybe it should go on the wall. (laughs) Oh wow, that's... That's fantastic.
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