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Sarasota News Leader May 3, 2013 Page 81 had received. "Debbie said she got laughing so hysterically," Stieff adds. When Walk asked him when the call came in, De Groft replied that he received it that morning. to partially restore the painting — which, she notes, was not in the best shape. The work would be covered out of proceeds from its sale at auction. Then Walk told him a staff member had called her that same morning, reminding her about a painting she had asked about months ago. It turned out the staff member had found the painting in the basement of the museum, Stieff says, laughing at the coincidence. "This very same day," she adds for emphasis. In the interim, she notes, "We had to go through 13 wills" from family members, to try to untangle how the proceeds would be divvied up. Sotheby's staff projected the sale price at $250,000, Stieff says, and the Miami office shipped the painting to New York for sale. "So Debbie goes over, and sure enough, there However, her son suggested a higher reserve it was, down in the basement, leaning against for it than Sotheby's had proposed, she notes. the wall with a lot of other pictures," Stieff The firm agreed. "I should have gotten suspicious then," she adds, "but I didn't." says. With her husband, Lorin, hospitalized as a result of illness, Sotheby's arranged for her to listen to the 2004 auction on the phone. After the reserve level was reached, Stieff said she was relieved. But the auction went "on and on," and by that time, she had moved from a chair in the hospital room to the bed with After consulting again with the man at Sothe- Lorin, who was holding up the phone in the by's, De Groft suggested he and the museum air. staff consult with legal counsel and Stieff do When the gavel came down, the price was the same, though he stressed, she says, "'Let's more than $1 million. (According to The Askeep this all friendly.'" sociated Press, the sale price was $1.2 million; No one wanted to pursue litigation, she points the painting went to an anonymous buyer.) out. "I never say, 'Wow!'" Stieff points out. But she Ultimately, Stieff says, because no one in the turned to Lorin and let out a "WOW!" family wanted the painting, the decision was MODERN SARASOTA reached for the family to make a donation to the museum, because it had stored the paint- From her condominium high in a building ing all those years. Then, when a Sotheby's overlooking Sarasota Bay, Stieff remarks on representative came to Sarasota to examine it, how much the waterfront has changed. The another decision was made to allow Sotheby's bay was once much bigger, she points out. De Groft soon arranged to take Stieff on a tour of the Ringling mansion, the Ca d'Zan, which was being readied to open to the public. Stieff adds that he casually mentioned the museum staff might have found something that belonged to her father.