Charity shop auctions off 'Dali' print from mystery donor

 A Colorado Goodwill charity thrift store is auctioning off a purported lithograph of a Salvador Dali work that it received from a mystery donor.
But the Grand Junction shop doesn't plan to verify the work's authenticity.
A customer at the store recently pointed out the signature on the print of 'The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus', which was numbered 168 out of 300.

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The lithograph was handed in at a Goodwill store like this one in New Jersey by an anonymous donor

The lithograph was numbered and apparently signed by the famous Spanish artist

Manager Bill Atwell said he doesn't know who donated the piece.
Atwell said the store is 'here just to raise money for our programmes', and it isn't going to pay an expert to determine if the work is authentic.
He said the store will instead let peopl
e bid for the piece and determine its value on their own.

As of Monday afternoon, bidding had climbed to $550.
Mark Winter of Art Experts Inc. in Daytona Beach, Florida, which appraises and authenticates artwork, said it's possible the piece in Grand Junction is real because it's numbered.

The lithograph is of Dali's famous painting, The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus (1959), which hangs in the Dali Museum in St Petersburg, Florida

If it is real, Winter said, it could be worth $2,000 to $3,000.
A lithograph is created by the artist himself or other skilled craftsmen. If the print quality of a lithograph is good and the production numbers are low, it can have significant value in the art world.
But he said there are also more than 200,000 fake Dali lithographs floating around - and there's a market for them too.
'They all have their following,' Winter said.
The original 'Discovery of America' painting is in the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.