Art: 15th Century Bargain

Auctions are apt to produce some bargains as well as some fantastically high prices, but the “anonymous” Madonna and Child recently knocked down at a Manhattan auction for $1,200 seemed to be one of the biggest bargains in auction history.

Painted on a 15-by-20-inch panel, the picture was almost surely the work of the great 15th Century Flemish master, Jean Clouet the Elder. Last week it had been identified by no less an authority than Maurice Goldblatt, director of the Notre Dame University art galleries, who first rescued Clouet from obscurity (his paintings were long known only as the work of “the Master of Moulins”), has since ascribed 20 other paintings to him. Chicago Lawyer Bailey Stanton, who picked up the picture on Goldblatt’s advice, might well turn a $100,000 profit on his purchase.