Drug Traffickers’ Dali Auctioned

A 1972 work by the flamboyant Spanish painter Salvador Dali, seized from Colombian drug traffickers by U.S. officials, fetched $111,000 during a public auction Thursday night at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach.

State Sen. W.D. Childers of Pensacola offered the winning bid on behalf of his friend, Pensacola trial attorney Frederic Levin, an avid art collector, said Terri Lynn, spokeswoman for the Bass Museum of Art.

“Self-Portrait” is the first masterwork that the U.S. Customs Service has auctioned, Customs spokesman Mike Sheehan said. About 50 to 60 people attended the auction.

Customs agents seized the painting at Miami International Airport on Dec. 7, 1993, because it had been bought with drug money.