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Priceless art rescued from trash

“I had a surreal, synchronicity-filled experience at Bar El Camaleón in Ajijic—one of those moments you’ll remember for the rest of your life, maybe even one that flashes before your eyes when you die,” wrote Alejandro Wagner on his Facebook page last Friday.

Wagner recounted stepping outside the bar for a smoke, only to witness a homeless woman pulling a pile of painted canvases from a dumpster across the street. Intrigued, he snapped photos of the discarded artworks and brought them into the bar, hoping to sell them and raise a bit of cash for the woman. However, the crowd of expat bar patrons showed little interest in his impromptu sales pitch.

A part-time resident of Ajijic and proprietor of the Mi Mexico boutique in addition to being an entrepreneur in Berlin, Germany, Wagner’s curiosity was piqued by the 20 or so canvases. He contacted a local artist friend, who arrived shortly after with Domingo Márquez, editor of the Semanario Laguna newspaper. Together, they identified several paintings as the work of renowned local artists Efrén González and Víctor Alcázar, alongside others by unknown creators.

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With this discovery, Wagner managed to collect around 1,000 pesos from bar patrons to give to the woman in exchange for the paintings. He selected a few pieces to take back to Germany as an example for the circular commerce initiative he leads there, leaving the remaining works with Márquez. These will be auctioned on Tuesday, December 3, at Cochera Cultural (Javier Mina 49) at 3 p.m. The auction will be part of an annual fundraiser supporting the weekly newspaper and a sales platform for over 30 local artists showcasing paintings, sculptures and photographs.

The origins of the valuable artwork and how it ended up in the trash remain a mystery. For Wagner, the bizarre episode serves as a sign of hope for struggling businesses in Ajijic. “We’re in the trash ourselves,” he remarked, expressing his wish that the auction would draw buyers who want to be part of this remarkable story.

Meanwhile, Víctor Alcázar reflected philosophically on the incident, calling it a “from garbage to charity” journey. “The path a work of art takes after it leaves the artist’s studio is always uncertain,” he mused.

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