PHILADELPHIA — The antique shop was about to close for good when Claire Iltis stumbled upon the drawings inside. They looked like other-wordly collages, or stained glass postcards, all with a maroon-black metallic gleam. Preserved in fading photo albums, each was labeled with a looping, cursive signature: Dorothy F. Foster.
The journey that followed, in which Foster's drawings went from dusty storage bins in upstate New York to being featured on the posters of Outsider Art Fair's annual show this year, is a testament to the powerful reputation of the Philadelphia gallery where Iltis works as an associate director.
But it also highlights how a good story can make people want in on artwork that has long been ignored. That's reflected in the price of the drawings, which the antique shop was selling for roughly $5 and which now sell for $1,000 — an almost 20,000% increase.
