The last time I "purchased" any art was about 7 years ago and "purchased " was the intention. There was a group of people walking around the neighborhood with various pieces of art and a couple stood out which I agreed to purchase. I invited them into my home and selected the two pieces you see in this post. The paintings were different because they were raised or textural is how I call them. The colors stood out along with the topics.
The first one is called "Le Tour" and depicts the Tour De France with the bottom one keeping with the French scene a night time illuminated Paris street. The orange and yellow grabbed my attention immediately with the cycling painting and is something I would just purchase if I had seen it somewhere else. They were already framed and we agreed a price which I would pay the following week as there was a few others I had selected and wanted framed.
That was the last time I saw them as they never returned with the other framed paintings which was a stroke of luck. These people were part of a gang casing properties that they could rob and I guess I was not deemed a soft enough target. Security has always been a strong point and why we have never been robbed in the 20 years since returning to South Africa. My motto is always to have far better security than your neighbors because then they will be the selected target and not you.
I do have other pieces of art mainly Second World War oil paintings that are limited editions, but these were free with an interesting story to go along with them. The gang was apprehended later that same week and the paintings were used as a front to gain entry into the properties.
I don't feel bad about not paying and now I wish I had selected more, but the intention was always to pay for them. It is funny how things work sometimes when the thief becomes the victim as that is how I see it in this case because I scored from their ill intentions. I have always had big dogs and living is a secure gated area does make any crime that much harder to pull off. I am sure they were looking for elderly couples who would not expect 3 innocent looking individuals or properties that had easy access and very little security.
The people I was dealing with were young students with two females and one male and they looked as innocent as you could get. They had me fooled, but not fooled enough to pay a deposit or pay upfront because that was never going to happen. I had never allowed them access to other parts of the house and were always in my company throughout even though I never thought they had crooked intentions. They were obviously part of a wider syndicate who would do the robbery at a later date so the moral of the story is you can never be too careful.