A $120,000 bid for a painting discovered in a New Hamburg thrift store may have been too good to be true after all.
The painting ‘Portrait of Eddie Barnes and Ed Murphy, Lobster Fishermen, Bay View, N.S.” was found in March at the Mennonite Central Committee Thrift Store.
It was the work of Maud Lewis, a folk artist from Nova Scotia whose life was recently the subject of a feature film called Maudie.
After the painting was discovered, the Mennonite Central Committee decided to auction it off.
Bidding hit the $125,000 mark within 48 hours, and seemed poised to stay there.
That changed on Friday, when the MCC announced that it would be restarting the auction from scratch.
“Due to the actions of an unqualified bidder, we are unable to continue with the auction in its original form,” the organization said in a statement.
The auction restarted at noon Friday, with a minimum bid of $5,000 and with bidders having to pre-qualify for the process. The painting is valued at $16,000.
Bidding is open until May 19. During the auction period, the painting is on display at the Homer Watson House and Gallery in Kitchener.
