Bought for $12 in 1965, two Maud Lewis originals set to be auctioned off

A Nova Scotia family is ready to part ways with a pair of paintings by the province’s most famous folk artist bought after an encounter nearly 60 years ago.

When Marilyn Manzer passed away earlier this year from cancer, her niece Julie LeBlanc brought two Maud Lewis original paintings home from her aunt’s mantel.

Although the family knew they were valuable, they were never treated like collector’s items.

“It was just the opposite,” LeBlanc tells CTV Atlantic. “It was, oh here, look, and handle it and love it and appreciate it. Not stuck in a box, stuck in a bag, stuck in a vault.”

Before she died, LeBlanc asked her aunt to recount the story of how she got the paintings.

Manzer told her about meeting the artist to purchase some of her work, and an encounter with her husband, Everett Lewis.

“He said, ‘C’mon out, I want to show you something,’ so we went out in his backyard with him. She didn’t get up, she just smiled and crouched down,” Manzer said in an August audio recording by LeBlanc. “And he came along and said, ‘I’ve got some real good ones out back, she wants to sell it to you.’”

Manzer bought the paintings in 1965 for a total of $12. She confessed to her niece she regretted only buying the two paintings.

“It would be a shame to not buy everything she had,” Manzer said in the recording.

LeBlanc says her aunt was a quilter and felt Lewis was a kindred spirit.

“She really appreciated the time and effort and love that someone puts into something as an artist, so they meant a lot to her,” said LeBlanc.

The paintings will be auctioned in February. LeBlanc says the money received will go to the entire family as one final gift from her aunt.