A Man Pulled Some Unusual Art from a Dumpster, Thinking It’d Be Fun for Halloween Decor. It May Actually Be Worth a Scary Amount

 Four and a half years ago, a mechanic pulled a trove of unidentified artworks from a Connecticut Dumpster, hoping to use them for Halloween decorations. But after some amateur sleuthing, he learned the pieces belonged to a once-prominent New York artist—and they may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The artworks, it turns out, were made by Francis Hines, a late, largely forgotten Abstract Expressionist who made a name for himself wrapping canvases, sculptures, and even entire buildings in fabric before departing the New York art world for a quiet life in Connecticut. 

Roughly 30 examples of his output were on view in New York and Southport, Connecticut, where prices will ranged from $12,500 to $20,000 a pop.

The mechanic came across the artworks after being tipped off by a contractor friend whose company had been hired to clear an abandoned barn in Watertown—presumably Hines’s studio. Driving to the site the next day, he and another friend found hundreds of paintings and sculptures in the trash, most swathed in protective plastic, some also covered in mold, dirt, and other debris.   

“It was gut-wrenching and very upsetting for us to get to see what looked like a lifetime of somebody’s artwork being thrown into dumpsters and heading for the landfill. It did not sit right with either of us, and within minutes we decided that part of the collection should live on.”

The men hauled off the art. If nothing else, they thought, it could make for a good ‘haunted art gallery’ Halloween installation the following month. But after unwrapping the artworks, they began to reconsider their value. 

On the back of a 1961 canvas was a full name: “Francis Mattson Hines.” For years after, the mechanic researched Hines’ life. He contacted the artist’s family, who allowed him to keep the work. 

Hines, who passed away at the age of 96 in 2016, wrapped several New York buildings throughout his career.