San Francisco artist seeks $2,200 painting given away without permission

San Francisco artist seeks $2,200 painting given away without permissionPhoto: Amos Goldbaum/Twitter
Teresa Hammerl
Published on May 27, 2020

Last month, Bernal Heights artist Amos Goldbaum painted one of his signature San Francisco street scenes to help brighten a boarded-up Mission shop.

A few weeks later, he auctioned it off for charity — raising $2,245 to support the SF-Marin Food Bank. 

But before he could ship off the painting to the winning donor, it was given away without his permission. Now, he's put out a call out to help get it back. 

The trouble started yesterday, when workers came to remove the plywood on clothing and gift shop The Woods (910 Valencia St., at 20th). For the past few weeks, Goldbaum's painting has been displayed there as part of a collaboration with Paint the Void, an organization that's sprung up to create murals on closed businesses around the Bay Area.

As the workers took down The Woods' plywood, a passerby asked if she could have the canvas. Without realizing its value, one of the workers gave it to her. 

"It was a miscommunication," Goldbaum said, adding that he planned to take the canvas down himself today. He said the mishap was especially ironic because he'd been worried about the painting being stolen or tagged for the weeks it was on display, which didn't come to pass.

Goldbaum has already given the winning bidder's donation to the Food Bank, and is concerned that they won't get the painting in return. 

But he also emphasized that the issue wasn't the result of "anything malicious." The unintentional giftee was described to him as a mother with a child, who walked by The Woods after visiting neighboring Smitten Ice Cream. 

A "missing painting" sign now hangs in The Woods' window, in hopes that the painting's accidental owner will bring it back. Goldbaum is also offering a reward for its return: a smaller print of the same piece, which he's selling on his website. (100% of the proceeds go to the food bank.)

In the event the painting never comes back, Goldbaum says he'll paint the donor a new one. "It's not the end of the world," he said.

Nonetheless, he's sad that it's gone missing, because it represents a part of his own pandemic story.

The art depicts Newburg Street in Noe Valley, which he's visited several times on shelter-in-place strolls. ("I've been going on a lot of walks," he said.)

Photo: Amos Goldbaum/Twitter

The piece has an Easter egg: a coyote, which appears in front of the houses as a reference to the species' local resurgence while humans stay inside.

"It's emblematic of how the city has changed," he said. "People are seeing the city in a new way."