Dear Lee,

In March we told you about our “brush” with Roy Lichtenstein when his wife, Isabel, was our decorator and Roy installed our drapes. He wasn’t famous back then and we didn’t buy one of his paintings when we had the chance. After Roy and Isabel moved to New York so he could take a teaching job, he changed his style and his Pop Art paintings took off. One of his comic-book paintings, a Pop takeoff on a Picasso, sold last year for $56 million.

Last week Rachel Davis Fine Arts in
Cleveland auctioned part of an estate that included some of the early Lichtenstein paintings and drawings we passed up in the 1950s. Top price, for “The Knight” (pictured), was $94,000.

Obviously, a Lichtenstein painting, even an early one, was now out of reach. But last week when I saw an online auction of posters designed by Roy, I decided to bid. I wanted a memory of our past. I registered with Dumbo Auctions, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and learned the minimum bid for the poster I wanted was $50, and the estimate $100-$150. To make sure my chances of getting the poster were good, I bid $200. But I knew the auction house would place my bids using the required “jumps” and that I might get the poster for less than $200. A day after the auction ended, an email arrived saying I got the poster—a picture of a sofa much like the one Isabel helped us buy—for $50. I was the only bidder.

The print cost me $50, plus a premium of $11.50, plus $15 for shipping and handling—a total of $76.50. At last I can tell friends our Lichtenstein story while showing them not only the drapery rods installed by Roy but also my poster. It’s not a museum piece, but it represents an unforgettable part of our life.