MARGARET KEANE THE THIRD LIMITED EDITION 1978 "BEDTIME" Decorative Plate

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M.D.H.
MARGARET KEANE
THE THIRD LIMITED EDITION
1978 "BEDTIME"
MADE EXCLUSIVELY FOR DAVE GROSSMAN DESIGNS, INC.
DECORATIVE USE ONLY
A DAVE GROSSMAN DESIGN JAPAN

We bought this plate at a yard-sale about 7 - 9 years ago for $1, it reminded us of our daughter, same straight dark brown hair and her bangs cut just like the little girl painted on the plate, and our daughter always carried her stuffed animal everywhere although it was always a stuffed unicorn, not a bear, but still it reminded us so much of her and being from 1978 was icing on the cake. I did not know until about two years after we bought the plate for $1 at a yard sale that it was by the artist involved in the biggest art fraud in U.S. history. The plate was priced for about $50 online.

---ABOUT THE ARTIST---
Artist Margaret Keane was the painter of the big-eyed waifs from the 1960s. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States in 1927. Her second husband Walter Keane set up a gallery in Los Angeles and began selling Margaret’s paintings as his own in the 1950s. Walter expanded the business to include everything from cheap posters and toys to high-priced originals; by the mid-1960s, originals sold for thousands of dollars. Margaret's husband Walter posed for national magazines with brushes and half-finished paintings, and appeared on TV to talk about “his” paintings, while Margaret was back home doing the real work. She finally left him in 1965 and, after remarrying, she revealed the truth in 1970. To prove she was the real artist, Margaret challenged Walter to a “paint off” in San Francisco, but he didn’t show. He maintained the fraud until she sued him in federal court, where another “paint off” was held in 1986. Margaret painted an original in about an hour, but Walter declined to participate, citing a shoulder injury. Margaret won the court case and has since continued her art career. Her paintings have their fans and originals are now considered collectors’ items and fetch a high price. The 2014 feature film "Big Eyes" was a movie made by Tim Burton about Margaret and Walter Keane, starring Amy Adams as Margaret and Christoph Waltz as Walter.