When a mechanic pulled paintings and other artwork from a Connecticut dumpster, he did not realize he had stumbled upon a trove worth millions of dollars.
Jared Whipple came across the paintings, sculptures, and small drawings after being tipped off by a contractor who had been hired to clean out an abandoned barn in Watertown, according to The Guardian.
It was only later that he discovered the artworks were by Francis Hines, an abstract expressionist who established himself by wrapping canvases, sculptures, and several New York City buildings in fabric. Commenting on the day he discovered the artworks, Whipple said he and his friend could not wrap their heads around what they saw.
"It was gut-wrenching and very upsetting for us to get to see what looked like a lifetime of somebody’s artwork being thrown into dumpsters and heading for the landfill," he wrote on a website dedicated to his story. "It did not sit right with either of us and within minutes we decided that part of the collection should live on."
Whipple said they initially thought the artworks could be used to create "the biggest, craziest haunted art gallery that anyone has ever seen" for Halloween but he began to question their value after unwrapping them.
"I started seeing some that really grabbed my attention and made me step back to take a better look," he recalled. "It was something that fine art had never done to me before. Being a mechanic my whole life, I was able to pick out many hidden car parts and noticed a bio-mechanical theme going on with some of the artwork."
Whipple noticed that the pieces were all signed F. Hines and after doing some research realized who the artist was and what he had discovered. Art curator and historian Peter Hastings Falk estimated that the "wrapped" paintings could be sold at around $22,000 apiece and Hines’ drawings at around $4,500, according to The Guardian.
After a successful showing at a gallery in Waterbury last year, Whipple has now decided to sell some of the art via Hollis Taggart, a New York City gallery which he will collaborate with on exhibits in New York and Connecticut beginning next month.
"I pulled it out of this dumpster and I fell in love with it," Whipple said of the artworks. "I made a connection with it. My purpose is to get Hines into the history books."