The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi

Chimp's paintings outsell Warhol, Renoir
12:24 PM CDT on Monday, June 20, 2005

Associated Press

LONDON - Monkey business proved to be lucrative Monday when paintings  
by Congo the chimpanzee sold at auction for more than $25,000.

The three abstract, tempera paintings were auctioned at Bonhams in  
London alongside works by impressionist master Renoir and pop art  
provocateur Andy Warhol.

But while Warhol's and Renoir's work didn't sell, bidders lavished  
attention on Congo's paintings.

An American bidder named Howard Hong, who described himself as an  
"enthusiast of modern and contemporary painting," purchased the lot  
of paintings for $26,352, including a buyer's premium.

The sale price surpassed predictions that priced the paintings  
between $1,000-$1,500.

"We had no idea what these things were worth," said Howard Rutkowski,  
director of modern and contemporary art at Bonhams. "We just put them  
in for our own amusement."

Congo, born in 1954, produced about 400 drawings and paintings  
between ages 2 and 4. He died in 1964 of tuberculosis.

His artwork provoked reactions ranging from scorn to skepticism among  
critics of the time, but Pablo Picasso is reported to have hung a  
Congo painting on his studio wall after receiving it as a gift.

"There's no precedent for things like this having been sold before,"  
Rutkowski said.