Francis Hines, Untitled (1983). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart.
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.
