Poetry for Charity

Hidden Treasure

by Victoria Crosby

In a church attic hidden away
for many years, until the day
the vestry’s spring cleaning unearthed a find
of a most unusual kind.
A painting, dark with ages grime
a portrait of another time,
of arches, and people with large tureens,
a landscape, not religious scenes.
Encased in a gilded and crumbling frame
the painting bore no artist’s name.
The church was to hold the annual fair,
a silent auction would take place there.
Our priest had prayed for a volunteer
to head up the silent auction that year.
My friends looked to me to be the chair,
how can you not be the answer to a prayer.
So the vestry gave the painting for me to sell,
with some other attic finds as well.
Now I was heading the auction committee that year,
that the painting would not sell at all was my fear.
The painting was large and looked to me
like the kind of work in museums I'd see.
So I called the William Doyle Gallery
and they said send a photo, then they would be
able to evaluate it properly.
Then I asked a very dear friend of mine
who loved to take photographs all the time.
Susan laughed at my thinking any value was there,
but she photographed the painting from each angle with care.
We sent in the photos, waited for their response,
but they didn't call saying “bring it over at once.”
Between eight and twelve hundred dollars, but to be sure
they would have to see it, as it could be worth more.
I wanted to bring it in right away,
but they were too busy to see us that January day.
So my other friend Susan said “to Christie’s we'll go,
then on to lunch and the antique show.”
She had a car that was big and wide,
large enough to fit the painting inside.

A young woman who looked like she was just out of school,
took one glance at the painting, she was no fool,
“It looks like the work of Panini to me,
but it could be the work of his students you see.”
Her assistant, another young girl, did agree
that an Italian Panini authority
would be needed to determine it’s authenticity.
Panini was an artist unfamiliar to me,
although I'd taken courses in art history.
But we listened with great anticipation
as they told us the value in their estimation.
Mechanical clouds painted in the sky
mean most likely it is students that this work is by.
Mechanical clouds? They looked authentic to us,
but Susan and I didn't make a fuss.
If it was a work by Panini’s students alone,
forty thousand dollars the church could take home.
If artist and students worked together it could clear
fifty thousand dollars with an auctioneer.
and if the work was proven to be
by the artist Panini exclusively,
then sixty thousand dollars, was a possibility.
We kept our demeanor, and tried hard to hide
the excitement that was rapidly building inside.
Slides would be sent to the expert in Rome,
the place that Panini once had called home.
Professor Arrisi would be the one
to tell us by whom this artwork was done.
I asked Christie’s to reduce their fees,
as the proceeds would go to charities.
The painting would be on the auction block in May
we didn't think we could wait until that day.
Susan and I left Christie’s walking on air,
it was bitter cold but we didn't care.
We went to the Winter Antiques Show,
and every painting there you know
had mechanical clouds in their sky.
“But ours is a Panini” said Susan and I.

The call came from Christie’s, several weeks had passed,
Professor Arrissi had proof at last
that this was the work of Panini he'd swear,
the initials GPP he'd discovered there.
Giovanni Paolo Panini was the artist’s full name,
and our lives would never be the same
.“A Capriccio of Roman Ruins” was Christie’s solution
to naming a painting belonging to a religious institution.
There were many others in the auction painted by an old master
and the bids kept coming in faster and faster
by people on the telephone from many lands,
and people in the room with paddles in their hands.
Advance bidding on the Panini had taken place
I must have had a surprised look on my face,
as the bidding started way above the reserves,
we were so excited, on edge with nerves.
I held my breath, as though the lotto I was winning,
the numbers on the board went swiftly spinning
dollars and marks, pounds and yen,
it past a hundred thousand dollars and then
it past two hundred thousand, I began to feel faint,
it’s amazing the value of old peeling paint.
“I knew you would be pleased,” the young saleswoman understated,
pleased? We were both positively elated.
Two church ladies then went out to lunch and drank a champagne toast,
and we gave thanks to The Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The proceeds from the auction the church decided to invest,
and with the interest every year another charity is blessed.
Who purchased the painting I wanted to know?
A private home or a museum, where would it go?
Through the office in London it was sold,
yet a mystery surrounded the buyer I was told.
Much art has been purchased by people of great fame,
yet the buyer did not wish to reveal a name.
Who would desire such secrecy? Royalty? It occurred to me
that Prince Charles is a collector of art, and I suspect
that he'd admire Panini as an architect.
And although my theory is just conjecture
both the Prince and Panini studied architecture.
So I like to think I'll see the Panini some day
at Windsor Castle on public display.