CHECK THE BACKS OF OLD PAINTINGS

A 5-foot-long painting was sold at a recent show after the dealer realized it had been cut in half and framed into two paintings. He restored the two paintings to the original size. This was not an unusual thing for a dealer to do in the 1950s. Unimportant pictures were cut into smaller ones--a landscape, a portrait, anything that looked like an attractive painting for over the sofa. Look carefully at the back of a painting and the way the painting has been stretched. The canvas should have an unpainted edge that curls around to the back of the stretcher. A painting that goes over the edge has probably been trimmed.