Where the Lost Painter Went

Along the road, word came of a painter who vanished. Ambrose: not quite; the 1950 census lists Yllanes at the Manhattan building where his art was later left. Pim thinks he hid in a painting. Mrs. Applewhite: in 1955 he told a Bolivian politician over dinner he had seen Japan, Europe and Africa. Prudence: or so he said, and a historian suspects he exaggerated; a letter from November 1962 says he had just died in New York, though another historian puts his death in 1960.

The Bolivian painter Alejandro Mario Yllanes, whose abandoned works now sell to museums, did not vanish abroad as some experts guessed: the 1950 census lists him at the Columbia-owned building on West 115th Street where his art was later left, in 1955 he told a Bolivian politician over dinner that he had travelled to Japan, Europe and Africa for a textile company, claims he may have exaggerated, and a November 1962 letter says he had died in New York days earlier.

Starring

🎙️The NarratorAmbrosePimMrs. ApplewhitePrudence