Retired dogwalker bequeathed ‘lost masterpiece’ by famous painter gets nasty auction shock

A retired dog walker was bequeathed a painting by an artist whose works sell for millions, but got a nasty shock when he auctioned it off for what he hoped would be $10 million.

Mark Herman, 68, received the abstract work of Chuck Close from his friend and former client, Isidore Silver, a retired attorney.

Silver, 87, had represented Close in a high-profile First Amendment case against the University of Massachusetts in the 1960s after the institution tried to ban him from displaying nude content as part of an exhibition of his work.

He received the abstract nude from his former client and gifted it to Herman in his final days, after the two became close friends when Herman began working as a dog walker for his beloved toy poodle.

Other works by Close have fetched as much as $4.8 million at auction, and after a months-long battle to prove the painting’s authenticity, Herman finally seemed poised to land a big payout.

“I was over the moon,” he told the channel New York Times. He even hallucinated that he would sell the painting for as much as ten million dollars while tripping on magic mushrooms.

But at a Heritage Auctions sale in Dallas earlier this week, the lot attracted just a single bid and ultimately sold for $40,000 – a fraction of the price he had envisioned.

“I thought it might cost a few hundred thousand, possibly a million,” Herman explained. “What with the backstory and all the publicity. But I can’t complain. The way I see it, it’s free money.’

The painting attracted the attention of the art world after Herman initially took it to be sold by Sotheby’s, but the auction house withdrew from the sale at the last minute because it could not verify its authenticity.

After being asked to cough up $1,742 in auction house fees, Herman had given up on the sale of the 64 x 80 inch painting. Then an archivist from the University of Massachusetts discovered evidence of its provenance.

A clipping from the 1967 student newspaper about Close’s banned exhibition showed him posing with the painting in question.

“It was like fireworks going off in my head,” Herman said. ‘It was one of those moments, just like in Hollywood. And I still think so, he was such a good friend of mine.’

After Silver’s death, Herman received $5,000 from his friend’s family in recognition of all he had done for him. He also took custody of his dog, Philippe.

“His son always felt that the painting was his birthright, so I agreed to pay him 12.5 percent of whatever it makes, I promised him that,” Herman added.

He suggested that the price he got for the painting, while well below some estimates, was “about what it’s worth.”

“I mean, it’s not a life-changing amount of money, but it’s good. They don’t go for more than $75,000, there are some who have gone for more. But this was an outlier, it is not representative of his work,” says Herman.

Demand for Close’s paintings has also declined since he was accused of sexual misconduct by several women in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Herman explained that he never really knew how the painting came into Silver’s possession, and speculated that it may have been a gift or payment for his services during his trial.

Close ultimately lost the case on appeal, as well as his job, and both he and Silver eventually moved to New York.

Herman, owner of a video and audio company, decided to sell it because he didn’t have the space for it in his Manhattan apartment.

“I would have loved to keep him, but he’s crying out for a home in the Hamptons,” Herman said. “The guy who bought it probably has a bigger wall.”

He explained that he had never ventured into the auction business before, although he had turned down several offers, some as high as $36,000, before deciding to auction the piece.

“I know high-end video, I know jazz, but I don’t know anything about art,” Herman added, revealing that several people had reached out to inform him that he had incorrectly displayed the painting.

“It looks better this way,” he said, “the signature looks good when it hangs like that, at least that’s what I told the auction house, so they have my opinion on it,” he joked.

He also revealed that a friend connected to the art world in Paris had told him that the rare painting could even attract the wrong kind of attention.

“He said people might come and steal it at night,” Herman explained.

So he’s willing to let it go, pointing out that the painting sold for more than the $10,000-$20,000 Sotheby’s estimate.

He is now focusing on getting a screenwriter on board to tell his story for the big screen and has even revealed that Brad Pitt has been touted as a possible leading man.

“If we get Brad Pitt on board, we’ll have a hit,” Herman said.

He added that Milo Addica, a screenwriter behind the film Monster’s Ball, had also been in touch and was keen to write something.

“He told me he was Chuck’s godson and that he wanted to make a movie about the First Amendment issue, but the family shut him down,” he added.

‘It’s like Warhol said: I’m just getting my 15 minutes of fame. It was nice to read people’s responses, they seem to have responded well.

“But even without finding the painting, it’s still such an interesting First Amendment case.”