By Tien-Shun Lee
Paul Abi Boutros of Fresh Meadows smiled shyly behind his bookstand on the Upper West Side in Manhattan Tuesday as he acknowledged the praises of passerbys who recognized him as the man who turned in two valuable works of art after finding them on the street.
“Are you the one we read about in the papers?” asked a blonde as she hurried downtown, pointing at Abi Boutros as she passed by his outdoor stand at the corner of Broadway and 80th Street.
Abi Boutros's rise to fame began last Thursday, when art framer William Bailey, 63, left a leather portfolio containing an unframed 8-by-10 inch sketch of two men on a bench by Pablo Picasso on the platform for the Seventh Avenue subway train at 79th Street.
The portfolio also contained a relatively heavy, framed painting of a study of Picasso's “Guernica” by Henri Matisse's great granddaughter, Sophie Matisse.
Bailey panicked when he reached Columbus Circle at about 11:15 a.m. and realized that he had left the portfolio behind. He caught a cab back to 79th Street and ran to the platform where he had left the art, but the works were no longer there.
Upstairs on the street, Ali Boutros noticed the large portfolio propped against the wall of H&H Bagels at 22-39 Broadway, next to a homeless man who often hangs out at that spot. He was attracted to the leather case and decided after a few hours to ask the man if he planned on keeping the portfolio.
The homeless man said no, and Ali Boutros took the portfolio home.
On Sunday, Ali Boutros' wife read a story in the newspaper about the missing art and realized the significance of the works in the portfolio. Ali Boutros called Bailey, whose number was printed on business cards inside the portfolio, and left a message.
Bailey returned the call and arranged to meet Ali Boutros by his bookstand on Monday morning.
Police met Ali Boutros outside the 79th Street subway station Monday because they were afraid that someone might try to rob him. They took the bookseller to the 20th Precinct station on West 82nd Street, where he handed over the portfolio to Bailey, who gave him $1,000 in reward money along with the leather portfolio case that he had admired.
“When he came, he looked sick,” said Ali Boutros of Bailey. “But then when he got the pictures, he looked like his heart had been lifted. He was changed, he was happy.”
Judy Wald, the owner of the art who lives on Central Park South said she was thrilled that the works had been found.
“I lost something that was valuable. The important thing is that it was found,” said Wald.
Ali Boutros, 47, came to the city from Zhale, Lebanon on a student visa in 1979. He attended Columbia University for a time but never obtained his college degree. He has sold books for more than 20 years, first in a store, and then from a folding table on the sidewalk.
Ali Boutros married a Jewish-American woman and has two teenage children. He plans on putting away most of his reward money for his children's education but not before tipping the homeless man who gave him the portfolio with an undisclosed amount of cash.
“Maybe we should just say he's happy, too,” said Ali Boutros of the homeless man.
– Philip Newman contributed to this story.
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by email at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
