$30 Million of Arthur Pinajian Art Found in Long Island Garage‏

ARTICLE  BY  NICK  ALLEN

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA,  U.S.A.

An Evening with Celebrated Author

Agop Hacikyan

Hosted by Vartan Abdo, Director Armenian Radio Hour of NJ

Join Vartan Abdo for an interview and discussion and take an exploratory journey into the mind and works of celebrated author Agop Hacikyan. Special attention shall be given to three works that saw light in 2012 and 2013.

In The Young Man in the Gray Suit, the long-awaited sequel to the international best-seller A Summer Without Dawn, an affluent young Turkish lawyer, gets news of his father’s sudden death and soon uncovers dark secrets from his family’s past—his father’s involvement in the genocide, a corrupt family empire, and an Armenian mother he has never known.

Unmailed Letters is a masterful translation of the insightful letters of Hambardzum Galstyan. Galstyan was a founding member of the Karabagh Committee, Mayor of Yerevan and a defender against corruption- be it Soviet or Armenian. He was assassinated, in 1994, at the age of 39. Written while imprisoned in Moscow, Unmailed Letters is a literary chronicle of the nation’s initial steps towards independence against the backdrop of a dying Empire. It is filled with moving accounts, humor, irony, and a keen sense of the absurd.

My Ethnic Quest presents a mosaic of ethnicities that collectively comprise Turkey. It also describes the silence imposed by the state to reduce the centuries-old mosaic into a drab mural. Hacikyan reveals how the Turkish state pressures its minorities to assimilate and reflects on episodes of severe discrimination that led to the decision to leave his native land for good.

Friday, April 5 @ 8:30 St. Leon Armenian Church 12-61 Saddle River Road, Fair Lawn, NJ For information call 201-791-2862

This event is sponsored by A.G.B.U. Ararat, Constantinople Armenian Relief Society (C.A.R.S.), Esayan-Getronagan Alumni Association, Hye Doon: Armenian-American Support & Education Center, Knights of Vartan Bakradouny Lodge of NJ, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), NY Armenian Students Association, St. Leon Armenian Church, Tekeyan Cultural Association, and Tibrevank Alumni.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the discussion and book signing.

Ramgavar Mamoul March 21, 2013

$30 Million of Arthur Pinajian Art Found in Long Island Garage

By: NICK ALLEN

Two homeowners who bought a run-down cottage for $300,000 made the investment of a lifetime after finding a treasure trove of art worth an estimated $30 million in the garage.

Thomas Schultz and his friend Larry Joseph - who are both investors - purchased the ramshackle bungalow in Bellport, New York in 2007, hoping to renovate it.

But inside they found thousands of paintings and drawings by obscure Armenian-American artist Arthur Pinajian, who had died in 1999 at the age of 85.

Pinajian, a former resident of the property who struggled to find success in the art world all his life, had instructed that the works be thrown away when he died. His wishes were ignored, and Arthur Pinajian they remained gathering dust amid bugs, vermin and mould.

Mr Schultz, a local Bellport resident and his friend Mr Joseph, a writer and businessman, paid an extra $2,500 for the art collection and set about restoring it.

Untitled, landscape Bellport

The pieces included abstract expressionist paintings, landscapes, sketches from the Second World War, illustrations for 1930s comic books, and images from the 1960 Woodstock artist colonies. In all, there were more than 3,000 paintings, drawings and illustrations.

Some of the abstract paintings are currently being exhibited in New York and are on sale for up to $87,000 each.

Untitled, 1958-59

According to News 12 Long Island, the collection was valued by Peter Hastings Falk, author of Who Was Who in American Art. He also once appraised art from the Andy Warhol estate.

Mr Falk told The Armenian Weekly: "He (Pinajian) painted every day but no one saw his art. He received no reviews and not one of his paintings or works on paper ever was shown in a New York gallery or museum."

Untitled, still life, 1964

Pinajian struggled financially and relied on his secretary sister for support. The siblings lived together most of their lives and neither married.

Speaking to the New York Times following the discovery of the artworks in 2007, Pinajian's cousin, John Aramian, said: "He thought he was going to be the next Picasso. They believed he would become famous and this would all pay off for them one day but it just never happened.

"So he became frustrated and withdrew from everything and just painted."

American art historian William Innes Homer, who died last year, had compared Pinajian to a "lone researcher in a laboratory pursuing knowledge for its own sake."

The art historian wrote: "He pursued his goals in isolation with the single-minded focus of a Gauguin or Cézanne, refusing to give up in the face of public indifference.

"He was passionate and unequivocally committed. Ultimately, Pinajian's work reflects the soul of a flawed, yet brilliant, artistic genius. When he hits the mark, especially in his abstractions, he can be ranked among the best artists of his era."

Los Angeles