The original Plaza Hotel portrait of Eloise has one of the strangest histories in American illustration. Painted by Hilary Knight in 1956 as a birthday gift for Eloise co-creator Kay Thompson, the tempera-on-board artwork hung in the Plaza’s lobby before disappearing during a Junior League Ball in November 1960. More than half a century later, after being found in a dumpster and forgotten in Knight’s closet, it sold at Bonhams for $100,000.
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