Iron County Record

PLUMBER BOUGHT A COROT

And Art Deal Which Family Condemned Netted a Profit of $71,000 for His Estate.

It would seem that the plumber's capacity for making money is not necessarily confined to his business. William B. McCormick, writing in Arts and Decoration, tells of one with nothing except his instinct to guide him who bought a superb Corot that enriched his estate by many thousands of dollars.

During the exhibition of a famous collection of art objects in New York, twenty-five years ago, the attendants in the gallery where the collection was shown noticed an unfamiliar and not very well-dressed man spending a considerable time each day in front of Corot's "Lake Nemi," one of the pictures in the collection. On making inquiries they found he was a well-to-do plumber, wholly unknown in the picture-buying world. It appeared later that he told his family he intended to buy the painting if possible and there was a fine family row over the matter. But he stuck to his plan and on the night the canvas came up for sale it was knocked down to him for $14,000. As long as he lived his family never forgave him for his extravagance. But they were forced to change their opinion of his action later. For when the painting was sold after his death it brought $85,000. No single investment of this man's lifetime ever brought him so large a profit.