The Painting in the Drain: How a Dock Study Vanished and Returned

The Painting in the Drain: How a Dock Study Vanished and Returned A mid-tier auction painting sold for $43,000 turned up propped inside a concrete drain, oil on linen 30 by 40 inches with hand-forged nails and water damage - how did a legally sold lot leave Crestline Auction House and end up in unit seven-C? Who moved Dock Study, Cuyahoga and why was it photographed in a drainage easement on December 11, 2019? In this episode, we tell the sequence of events from the August 2019 Crestline photographs through the October auction purchase and the December discovery in a Holt County storage facility, following the paper trail and the people who touched the lot. Can the transaction records, the buyer’s account history, and a routine plumbing decision explain the contradiction? Person: Robert Tillman Date: December 11, 2019 Location: Holt County storage facility, unit seven-C Event: Lot 2-11 (Dock Study, Cuyahoga) found in drainage easement Person: Daniel Pryor - Painting dimensions recorded as roughly 30 by 40 inches. - Auction sale price listed as $43,000, paid by personal check. - Junior cataloguer Daniel Pryor was 28 years old and opened a checking account in Gahanna in March 2019. - Between March and October 2019 deposits into Pryor’s account ranged between $400 and $700 in cash. - Marilyn Campbell pulled the Lot 2-11 file within sixty minutes of seeing the December 12, 2019 photos. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].