Trash Bags Hold 18th-Century Oil Masterpieces

An antiques dealer bought two stolen masterpieces worth almost $3 million for $210 at a street market, Sotheby’s auction house said Friday.

The company said the man only learned the true value of the 18th-Century portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds when he brought them to Sotheby’s in a black plastic garbage bag for valuation.

Sotheby’s art expert Lucy Hodson told reporters she recognized the works, stolen from London law offices in a 1990 robbery in which a guard was beaten unconscious.

“I could not believe my eyes when this man pulled these two paintings from the bin bag,” said Hodson. “Both of them had been taken from their frames when they were stolen and the Gainsborough was rolled up. The Reynolds is smaller and was still on its stretcher.”

The man bought the paintings of Judge Sir John Skynner and former treasurer Francis Hargrave from an east London street market for a total of $210. Police said he was innocent of any crime but they are searching for the market-stall holder.