Collector Takes $135,805 EBay Gamble
From Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO--An amateur art collector has
offered $135,805 for an abstract painting listed on
EBay's online auction site. If it proves to be an original
by the late Richard Diebenkorn, it could be a stunningly
good investment.

If not, Robert Keereweer of Nieuwkoop, Holland,
will have thrown a great deal of money away on a
garage-sale knockoff originally offered for 25 cents on
an Internet site where the mantra is "buyer beware."
Keereweer, a software executive who lives just
south of Amsterdam, placed the highest bid on the
painting Monday, and plans to fly to the United States
in a couple of days to complete the transaction.

Other, verified works by the same abstract artist
have sold for much more. The record price for a
Diebenkorn at auction was $3.9 million, bid in 1998 at
Sotheby's for a painting titled "Horizon: Ocean Park."

Keereweer has not seen the painting yet, and has
mentally prepared himself for the possibility that the
1952 orange and green work is not an original.

"I'm not worried," he said. "It's part of taking the
risk. If you buy a share of a company, you don't know
how it will perform. The biggest risk is doing it and
trying to explain it to my wife. She thinks I'm nuts."

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The whole thing is kind of nuts and fishy! <G>