One paper headlined the news: HER SUICIDE: HIS FORTUNE. The suicide was in oils, a painting of a fat and mostly naked Dido, stabbing herself with a sword.* The Oxfordshire lady who owned it figured it was not “a picture anyone would want about the house,” sold it to an antique dealer for 50 shillings ($10). The dealer traded it to a salesman for a $56 typewriter, and it was the salesman, a bustling Briton named Henry Eric Wells, who made a small fortune last week from Dido’s suicide. He showed the painting to an art expert, discovered it was from the hand of the Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens (who had painted another well-known Dido in the same pose, and resold it for $13,000.
* According to legend. Dido, daughter of the Tyrian King Mutton and founder of Carthage, committed suicide rather than marry an importunate African chief. Virgil shuffled because Wanter Aeneas was leaving her.
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