What's in the Garbage

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "One Person's Trash is Another Person's Lost Masterpiece." The article begins, "It’s hardly a place you would expect to find a $1 million painting...But one March morning four years ago, Elizabeth Gibson was on her way to get coffee, as usual, when she spotted a large and colorful abstract canvas nestled between two big garbage bags in front of the Alexandria, an apartment building on the northwest corner of Broadway and 72nd Street in Manhattan." The article reports, "Experts say the painting — a largely abstract depiction of a man, a woman and an androgynous figure in vibrant purples, oranges and yellows — is in miraculously good condition and worth about $1 million. On Nov. 20 it is to go on the block at Sotheby’s as one of the highlights of a Latin American art auction."

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Have you ever found something in the garbage that you really liked? What did you find? Why did you like it? Did you keep the object that you found? Why/why not?
• Have you ever thrown something away that you later wished that you had not thrown away? What was it? Why did you later wish that you had not thrown it away?
  
• Do you like to draw? What kinds of things do you like to draw? If you don't like to draw, do you like to make things? What kinds of things do you like to make? How would you feel if you made something and somebody threw it out? Why would you feel this way?
  
• If you were to take a picture of any one thing that you can see right now, what would you take a picture of? Why would you take a picture of this? Do you think it would be hard to take this picture? Why/why not?
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Abstract; Nestled; Credible; and, Dismantling.
  
• How do you think that the painting got from Texas to New York? If you were to conduct an investigation to try to determine how the painting got from Texas to New York what kind of questions would you ask? With whom would you want to speak? Why?
  
• What does it mean for a painting to be high quality? Do you think the answer to this question is entirely subjective or can some objective criteria be applied to it? What objective criteria might be applied to it?
  
• Imagine that you were the thoughts inside of Ms. Gibson's head when she realized that she had a stolen painting in her house. What would you have thought? Why would you have had these thoughts?