How Great Thou Art? O.C. Crowds Line Up to Find Out

Lugging framed portraits, landscapes and abstractions, nearly 2,000 people took time from their Labor Day weekend for free art appraisals at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday.

They waited in line for about an hour to see if their garage find or once-overlooked gift was actually worth anything.

“People love to know if they have something of value,” said Gene Valaitis, executive vice president of International Galleries Inc., a Dallas-based company that sells reproductions of original art.

The company sponsored the Anaheim event to search for undiscovered material it could reproduce and to gather video footage for a television show the company is producing, Valaitis said.

“This is a way to find gems and get them out there,” he said. “It’s not uncommon for us to unearth something of real value.”

Among those hoping to unearth some value Saturday was Elaine Gonzales of Los Angeles.

Friends and family kid her about her treasure-hunting forays to garage sales, she said.

Gonzales brought a cityscape she had purchased for $2.50.

“I’m the queen of garage sales,” said Gonzales, a business consultant. “I want to see if what I’ve been doing has any payoff.”

It did, appraiser Andy Roughton told her. Roughton said the painting was an original by French artist Lucien Ducuing and was worth about $500.

The painting Nancy Cavanaugh brought, of a canal scene in Venice in an elaborate golden frame, was worth even more, according to Roughton.

Cavanaugh, of West Hills, said she inherited the painting from her mother-in-law.

The work by Giuseppe Vivian, circa 1950, was probably worth more than $5,000, Roughton said, and the frame more than $1,000.

Both Gonzales and Cavanaugh said they were not likely to sell their works, but would place them in more prominent spots in their homes.

“I guess I might take it out of the garage now,” said Gonzales.

Michael Daskalakis, 43, an electrician from Monrovia, had poorer luck.

His painting of a cobblestone street, which had an inscription on the back that read “Anna B. Masters, Paris, France,” was not worth anything, Roughton said.

Daskalakis said he had hoped it was worth at least more than the $9 he paid for parking at the convention center. None of the appraisals could be independently verified, including a couple of possible Michelangelo finds that Roughton said another appraiser discovered.

The owners of the pieces, a man, his wife and her mother, declined to identify themselves to a reporter.

They said they were told the two drawings were sketches by Michelangelo for his statue, “La Pieta.”

The mother said her husband received the drawings as a Christmas gift from the late actress Greer Garson. He was Garson’s podiatrist, she said.

“This is very exciting,” said the mother, who was escorted to her car by security guards.

“It’s great to finally know what they are after all these years.”