One day while walking along the road near her home a little girl found a painting lying in the ditch. It was a landscape painting, an image of leafless trees fading toward a narrow horizon brightly lit below a placid blue sky.
“Oh, you’re beautiful,” thought the girl, and she picked up the painting, wiped off the litter and dust that had settled on it and carried it home.
At home the girl’s mother agreed that it was a beautiful painting and she hung it up in the family’s small dining room.
That night at dinner the father saw the painting. “It needs a better frame,” he said, and he gave his wife a little money to re-frame it.
Weeks later, after the painting had been re-framed, the family had friends over for dinner. One friend, when he saw the painting, asked how much it cost.
“I found it in the ditch by the road,” said the girl.
“It’s beautiful but worthless,” said the father.
“I’ll give you a hundred dollars for it,” replied the guest.
“A hundred dollars. That’s a lot of money,” said the father.
“It is, but I’m happy to pay it,” said the friend. “It’s a beautiful painting.”
The family agreed to sell the painting, took it off the wall and gave it to the friend.
Jim Jones was the friend’s name. Jim worked as an accountant at a bank. He took the painting to work and hung it in his office.
The next day his boss, the bank manager, saw the painting. “Jim,” said his boss, “I’d like to buy that painting, how much would you like for it?”
Jim thought for a minute, “500 dollars,” he said. “It’s very rare, a family heirloom.”
“Agreed,” said his boss and he gave Jim five hundred dollars, removed the painting from Jim’s office and hung it in his much larger and more luxurious office.
Weeks later a client from Europe dropped in to talk with the manager. He saw the painting hanging on the manager’s wall.
“That’s a beautiful painting,” said the man. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars for it.”
“A thousand dollars,” replied the manger, “it’s a significant family heirloom, sir, worth five times that to my wife and family, tend times that. It’s been in our family for decades. ”
“Do you know who painted it?”
“No, we don’t. It was never signed.”
“Doesn’t matter,” said the client, “I’ll give you ten thousand for it.”
The manger agreed and the client, Mr. Smith, walked out with the painting.
Two days later Smith put a hand carved frame on the painting and hung it in his home above a white marble fireplace.
Mr. Smiths’ wife loved the painting. “I’m going to show it to all our friends,” she said, and she sent out invitations for afternoon tea.
Of the twenty guests that came for tea one, Mrs. Adam James the III, loved the painting so much she offered to buy it.
“I’ll give you 25 thousand for it,” she said.
“25 thousand,” Mrs. Smith replied, “is far from what it’s worth. We paid twice that years ago. Today it must be 100 thousand or more. More certainly, much more.”
“I like the piece,” said Mrs. Adam James the III. “I’ll give you 300 thousand for it and you can keep the frame.”
The two women agreed and the painting left Mrs. Smith’s home for a wall on Adam James the III’s five hundred foot yacht.
Mrs. Adam James hung the painting on the yacht’s most visible and prominent wall, lit the painting perfectly, put a gilded frame on it and invited prominent guests for cocktails and a movie.
Among her guests was a famed art collector, Dr. Penrose Dean, who after seeing the painting offered to buy it for ten million dollars.
“I want it for my private collection,” he said.
“It’s yours,” said Mrs. Adam James the III, and the painting left the yacht for a wall at the Louvre.
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