БИЛЕТ №23. Mind the text “Lautisse Paints Again” by H. Smith and with the help of the questions describe the events in 10-15 sentences. 1. How did the author and Lautisse get to be real friends? 2. What did Lautisse do at Betsy and her husband’s place? 3. Why did the gallery people were interested in the fence? 4. What made the fence price rise? The author had no idea who his new acquaintance met on board a ship was. The author and his wife Betsy talked to the ship's librarian found out that their new friend was probably the world's best living painter. His real name was Lautisse. The library book said that he suddenly stopped painting at 53 and lived in a villa in Rivera. He hadn't painted anything in a dozen years and was heard to say he would never touch the brush again. They got to be real friends and Betsy invited Lautisse to come up to their place for a weekend. They had promised him that they wouldn't have any people and wouldn't try to talk to him about art. Next morning the author was up at seven-thirty as a fence around vegetable garden had needed a coat of paint. The author took out a bucket half full of white paint and a brush and an old kitchen chair. Soon Lautise came up to him, took the brush from his hand and said, he'll show the author how to paint it. He wouldn't even look up from his work when Betsy invited to have breakfast. After this work he said that he hadn't enjoyed himself so much in years. The author and his wife didn't hear anything from him for about 10 days but the newspapers learnt about the visit and came to their place. Betsy told the reporters everything and about the fence too. The next day the papers had quite a story and the headlines said: LAUTISSE PAINTS AGAIN. On the same day three men came to my place from different art galleries and offered 4.000 dollars first,the next day 25.000 and then 50.000. On the fourth day a sculptor named Gerston a friend of Lautisse came to their place.. He advised the author to allow the Palmer Museum in New York to exhibit it for a few weeks. The gallery people were interested in the fence because Lautisse had never before used a bit of white paint. So the fence was put in the Palmer Museum Later it turned out that Lautisse visited the exhibition and signed all the thirty sections of the fence. So 29 of the 30 sections were sold within a month's time and the price was 10.000 each section. The aothor didn't want to sell the 30th section and it's hanging now in their living-room.
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