by Kimberley Chapin
MIAMI (CBS4) ?The folks at Goodwill Industries of South Florida in Miami are filled with, well, more good will than most may expect.
A recent, generous donation from a hotel included the usual: furniture, mirrors, lamps, paintings and other decorative pieces. While going through those, workers stumbled across a life-size, bronze statue of a ballerina weighing in at 2 ½ tons!
Intrigued by the expensive-looking, signed statue, the management at Goodwill in Miami did some research and identified the original artist and the fact that only ten such ballerinas were produced decades ago. When they were created, collectors paid half a million dollars for each piece.
According to Goodwill, the sculptor of the piece is Sterett-Gittings Kelsey.
However, not many bargain hunters head to Goodwill searching for $500,000 statues. Savvy art dealers recommended Goodwill sell the statue in the worldwide art market. They could bring in a fortune, all for the nonprofit organization.
But rather than reel in the big bucks, the management at Goodwill decided to return the ballerina.
"Once we learned of the value and history of the ballerina and that the ballerina came from a large corporation that has gone through several ownership changes over the years, we suspected that the owner did not have a clue of the value of the statue," Dennis Pastrana, President and CEO of Goodwill, said. Goodwill then advised a representative of the owner, who was pleasantly surprised that Goodwill contacted them.
"We have a reputation for integrity and honesty. And while we could have kept the statue, in good conscience we knew that it would have been wrong and unethical to attempt to sell such a valuable piece of art without notifying the donor first."
The donor, who has requested to remain anonymous, had already been generous. "Their other donations have translated into a value of about $68,000 to Goodwill," said Pastrana.
Goodwill Industries is a national nonprofit social services organization for training and employing people with disabilities. In 2008, the institution provided training and employment services to over 4,800 people with disabilities and special needs in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.