A famous Eloise portrait vanished from New York’s Plaza Hotel in 1960, later turned up frameless in a dumpster and spent about 50 years rolled in illustrator Hilary Knight’s closet before selling at Bonhams for $100,000
- Photo credit (L-R): Bonhams; New York’s Plaza HotelThe original Plaza Hotel portrait of Eloise has one of the strangest histories in American illustration.
- Painted by Hilary Knight in 1956 as a birthday gift for Eloise co-creator Kay Thompson, the tempera-on-board artwork hung in the Plaza’s lobby before disappearing during a Junior League Ball in November 1960.
- More than half a century later, after being found in a dumpster and forgotten in Knight’s closet, it sold at Bonhams for $100,000.
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- Photo credit (L-R): Bonhams; New York’s Plaza HotelThe original Plaza Hotel portrait of Eloise has one of the strangest histories in American illustration.
- Painted by Hilary Knight in 1956 as a birthday gift for Eloise co-creator Kay Thompson, the tempera-on-board artwork hung in the Plaza’s lobby before disappearing during a Junior League Ball in November 1960.
- More than half a century later, after being found in a dumpster and forgotten in Knight’s closet, it sold at Bonhams for $100,000.
Sources: Times of India