A painting worth as much as $850,000 found in the library in the Old Lyme (Conn.) Center School in 2000 will be going up for auction June 12 at Christie’s of London. Bingham Bryant, a student at the school, had been enthralled by the painting during a class held in the library. He then convinced his father Christopher Bryant, a dealer in 18th- and 19th-century military materials, to look at the unframed painting hanging over a bookcase. The Bryants discovered that the work was The Fate of Persephone painted by the British artist Walter Crane and believed lost since 1923. Bryant told American Libraries, “This is the best Crane oil painting to appear on the open market in living memory.”
Media Specialist Susan Stoehr told AL, “We didn’t know the painting was lost, because we always had in our records who owned it.” The records show that Yale Professor Brian Hooker loaned the painting to the school in 1935. Hooker’s daughters, now octogenarians, are the painting’s legal heirs.
According to Marilyn Warren, business manager for the school district, the painting was removed from the school for cleaning on August 23, 2001, and its owners have terminated the loan agreement, opting to sell it at auction.
Posted February 25, 2002.