Donated Dali drawing bids

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Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Bill Atwell, manager of a Goodwill thrift store in Colorado, who is planning to auction a donated lithograph that may or may not have artist Salvador Dali’s signature on it. Download MP3

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Lisa Mullins: Is it fake, or is it surreal.  That’s the question raised by a lithograph that bears the signature of Salvador Dali.  The print was donated to a goodwill charity thrift store in Grand Junction, Colorado.  And the store’s manager Bill Atwell is planning to auction it off.  But he is not planning to verify whether the late Spanish painter actually signed the work or whether it is a fake. Well Bill Atwell, what’s the name of the piece that you believe to be a Salvador Dali original?

Bill Atwell: Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

Mullins:  And when your [xx] Dali do this?

Atwell: 1958 to 1959.

Mullins: How did it come to your attention in the store?

Atwell: It was donated.  It was actually going out on a [xx] for sale when a customer spotted it and told me what we had.  I checked it out a little bit and researched the original painting which is in St Petersburg Florida at the Dali Museum.  Then we decided to put it on the silent auction that we have here.  We have one here every two weeks to see what we could do.

Mullins: By the way what does it look like?

Atwell:  Surrealistic like other paintings.  Has a boat coming ashore.  A banner with a lady on.  And this obviously is Dali’s wife.  Painted himself into the picture as a monk kneeling on the shore with a crucifix.  And there is cross exploding to the air and it is quite fascinating when you look at it.

Mullins: So did you kind of weigh in yourself on this, whether or you thought it was an original?

Atwell:  I really have no opinion one way or the other.  I [xx] so much on both sides of it. I had so called experts call me and say it can’t be real, it is a poster. I had people come by that claimed to be experts in art from as far away as Chicago telling me that it is a real painting, that it is a real signature, not a poster, it is not a reproduction.  They can’t verify whether it’s Dali’s or not.  But that it is real lithograph or serigraph as it is called.

Mullins: Serigraph, and what number is it of how many?

Atwell: 168/300.

Mullins:  168/300.  So you have had some people come in and take a look at it but you are not going to get it officially authenticated.

Atwell: To bring somebody else from one of the Dali museum should be quite expensive and we are not claiming that it is authentic on our auction.  In fact one of our highest bidders, I just spoke to him and had leans about it.  And he liked it he wanted it, and if you want and it wasn’t worth anything at all, he was [xx] with cause.  He wanted to help support our programs.

Mullins: Well the program is being what?

Atwell: We help people gain economic and independent living as much as we possibly can.  We have rehabilitation programs, people with disabilities, adult daycares, programs such as that.  We have 21 different ones altogether.

Mullins: Do you know how much it would be worth if you did get an official estimate?

Atwell: Some Dali lithographs have been found going anywhere from a thousand to several thousand dollars.  And not this particular piece, but the biggest problem is there are so many fakes people saw imposters of lithographs or whatever, that probably hurts the value more than anything.  That’s why we are making no claims whether it is real or not.

Mullins: You are not making any claims as to whether it is real or not, but if it is indeed real then goodwill stands to gain as you say between one and several thousand dollars.  Wouldn’t it be worth it to get an authenticator in?

Atwell: It might but one of the things that we do is we get a lot of good treasures here that are donated.  The people in our area have been very generous with their donations.  And sometimes they deserve to get a good deal.  We are not here to make a fortune and take everybody’s last penny.  We are here to raise money for our program.

Mullins: When is the auction for the possible Dali lithograph.

Atwell: It ends at 6 o’clock today.

Mullins: 6 o’clock Mountain which is 8 o’clock Eastern Time.  And if someone wants to make a bid, how do they do that.

Atwell: Well they need to come on the store and make a bid on it.  and in some cases I will take a phone bid.  And if get a lot of information.  We’ve really in all honesty prefer to stay in the community because it was donated by the community.

Mullins: Bill Atwell, Manager of the Grand Junction Goodwill Shop in Grand Junction, Colorado.  The auction happens tonight 8 o’clock Eastern Time, 6 o’clock Mountain.  Best of luck to you.

Atwell: Alright.  Thank you very much.

Mullins: See the original Salvador Dali painting at the world.org.   This is PRI.

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