奇速英语

40年前女子用烤奶酪三明治换取的画作拍出27万美元高价

In the early 1970s, Demas was a 19-year-old newlywed whose husband had a good eye for potential. After discovering a building that had once housed a restaurant, Tony asked his wife to open their own restaurant, and together, the two established an eatery called The Villa.

Before then, Demas had no cooking experience and had never imagined herself working in a restaurant kitchen. On The Villa’s opening day, the restaurant’s chef had too many beers, and Tony asked his wife to step in. “I knew nothing honestly about food,” she explained. “But I did know how to make a grilled cheese, so I thought, ‘OK, our special’s just going to be grilled cheese sandwiches.’”

The sandwiches were a hit, and the restaurant managed to survive. Around 1973, it was there that the couple came to meet future regulars, Audrey and John Kinnear. “After a while, he started bringing in some of his art and asked my husband if we could trade for their lunches for his art,” Demas explained. “They simply offered and took and, eventually, one day, Kinnear came in with a set of paintings that weren’t his own to trade.” Demas remembers that Kinnear told the story of the artist he’d met who had limited mobility(行动受限) (Lewis had rheumatoid arthritis) and was of simple means.

Lewis, a folk artist from Nova Scotia who’d never achieved any financial success for her art, became a topic of interest. “There was an article written about her in one of the newspapers. More and more people were collecting and buying her art...”

Various auctioneers(拍卖商) pursued Demas, but two brothers from Miller & Miller Auctions were determined. The two auctioneers drove through snow to meet Demas and her husband face-to-face. Not long after their visit, after encouragement from her children, Demas put the piece up for auction. At an auction on May 14, the hammer struck at $272,548. The letters sold for about $55,000.