GUEST: It was acquired under the dark of night, as I... (laughs)
APPRAISER: I like it already, okay.
GUEST: I was the technical director of a theater in Brooklyn, and at about 2004, 2005, it was brought in for a production, and it wasn't being used in the production. And we had a very strict no leftovers policy, because we had a very small studio theater. So I made them take it with them when the show ended, and I came outside, and there it was, leaning up on a pile of garbage bags on the middle of the street...
APPRAISER: (laughs): Okay.
GUEST: ...in Downtown Brooklyn, and I said, "I can't let that go."
APPRAISER: Oh.
GUEST: That's coming home with me.
APPRAISER: And do you know anything about the artist?
GUEST: I know his name is Gregorio Prestopino, and I know that he was born in Little Italy, but that's all I know about him.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, I read, when he was 14, that he had to decide if he was going to be a gangster or an artist.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: In his mind, that was his options, that was 1921. So he started his art career very early. From there, he was at the National Academy of Design for seven years, so at 22, he was, for all intents and purposes, a professional artist.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: But then he struggled, like many artists do, for a long time, and his work evolved tremendously over the years. You can see early work and late work, and compare them, and you wouldn't even think they're the same artist. About the only through line is the figure. The figure comes through all the way into the '80s in his late work. This work, oil on canvas, signed upper left, Prestopino, is not dated. Stylistically, this is going to be in the late '50s, early '60s. The title is "Morning Nude #1," and it depicts, I believe, a, sort of a variation on a classic subject, the woman at her toilette. We think conservatively, at auction, you're probably looking at about $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Whoa! (laughs) That was well more than I would've ever expected! I have to call my insurance company when I get home.
APPRAISER: (laughs)
