Paris Art Dealer Accidentally Leaves $1.6 Million Painting in Taxi

Priceless work of art is by sculptor/painter Lucio Fontana is still missing.

May 3, 2017 11:23 am
Paris Art Dealer Leaves Priceless Painting in Cab
axi drivers steer their cars as they stage a protest drive past the Eiffel tower in Paris on April 15, 2017.(Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)
Paris Art Dealer Leaves Priceless Painting in Cab
Taxi drivers past the Eiffel tower in Paris. (Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)

We’ve all done it: forgotten a phone, wallet, or jacket in a taxi cab. But one Paris art dealer made a much more critical error, leaving behind a $1.64 million painting.

Per The Local, the dealer was on his way to meet a collector last Thursday, and stowed the painting in question—Lucio Fontana‘s “Concetto Spaziale”—in the taxi’s trunk. He then paid the cab fare, got out, and the taxi drove away with the painting.

According to police, the dealer frantically searched for the taxi through this past weekend but was unable to locate it. He’s since filed a complaint with the authorities, alleging that the painting is now stolen goods.

Per the Guggenheim‘s website, Fontana was an Argentinian-Italian sculptor and painter, who is best known for his work in the spatialism genre.

For more on Fontana’s work, watch the video from Sotheby’s below.

—RealClearLife

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