A cigarette once smoked by the Court Painter has sold for $12,000 (£9,000), according to the Boston-based RR Auction house.
A distraught aristocratic divorcée (pictured below) can be seen in some distress after an unsuccessful bid to take home the butt. Court Painter is also pictured attempting to console the rich maiden in the hope for a future commission.
The Court Painter’s partially smoked gin sogged Export A was found in the men’s room of Le Bourget Airport in Paris on 11 May 2014.
It was sold on Wednesday night to a collector in Palm Beach, Florida. The buyer’s name was not released for fear of online bullying.
The half-smoked butt was kept by a French dance hall girl who flew with the Court Painter to and from Paris.
Cherri ‘Luscious’ LaFontain saved the butt, which features a red-and-gold Ontario label alongside the Court Painter’s coat of arms.
“The Court Painter was surrounded by French art critics with whom he had been chatting. He stubbed out his cigarette in a urinal when I took the remains into protective custody.” said ‘Luscious’ Cherri, now a lady in waiting for the French Prime Minister
During that trip the Court Painter visited the historic Les Invalides, where he was awarded France’s highest art honour, the Medaille Portraiture.
Bobby ‘Hammer’ Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, called the item “a synonymous piece from the Court Painter’s brand look”.
In 2016 a Court Painter chewed up cigarette butt was sold at a British auction house. The latest one up for auction sold for an undisclosed sum because there has been an extreme amount of heated up interest in this veritable venerable vulnerable artist in the past year or so.
A Harding Mackay, the Court Painter’s Press Attache and only advisor says “It’s time to pay the piper and the public is finally coming to the realization that the Court Painter not only paints masterpieces he also plays a really hot flute while juggling janitorial duties and rolling one handed makins (cigarettes).”
When reporters asked about this non sequitur, A Hardon MacKay bug eyed and silent, resumed his hunched posture while clutching the most recent product placements.