A Las Vegas offer

 This lighthearted watercolor drawing is from the late sixties and has spend its life in Las Vegas

 This mother and child, pen and ink drawing was made in 1977. Tony often depicted these intimate scenes. here it is a young Mexican boy.

Two lovers in pen and ink...
The lady who contacted me wrote:
Hi, I hope you can help me sell my terrific Tony Mafia art work, If you know anyone collecting Tony Mafia please pass on my message and pictures. I'll send sizes if there is interest. Trusting the pictures arrive open as I'm sending them.  I must down size, and sell now.
 Thank you for your time and consideration .
sincerely Jeannie Ott

jott777@cox.net
702-450-3288
I'm located in Las Vegas

Tony's jewelry

Melinda wrote me following comment on Tnry's blog: Hi, I purchased a wonderful huge unsigned chunky Sterling Silver ring that I was told was made by Tony Mafia. The people I purchased it from said that they personally knew him and that it was probably the only piece of jewelry that he made. It is cast and abstract. It has a man and woman's head on it. The man has a large mustache. Do you have any idea if this story could be true? If so, any idea of value? If you know anything or would like a picture do contact me. So I did because I truly believe it is a piece done by Tony. He used to have a metal box in which he had jewelry making tools. I have seen it. I don't know whether this is the only know piece or whether he made several pieces. He has done several sculptures and the style and dealing with the material really looks it could have been a piece Tony made.

As to value, I don't really know: he used to say for a handful of love or a bag of peanuts. It is a rare piece, so to someone  collecting Tony's work it might add something special to their collection.

I remember a story of two lawyers in California who in the 70's flew him over for a party because they had their 300 st piece of work by him, even a plaster cast he made as a child. I don't know the name of these good people. Maybe someone does... Maybe there are people out there who would like to see or own more Tony Mafia's. Maybe somewhere out there, there is a Tony Mafia foundation...

Goodbying was never said

Tony often wrote on his drawings and paintings. So he did on this airbrush and watercolor. The texts is clear enough for you all to read. There is obvious sadness. I do not know what loss Tony was mourning in this writing. Do you?

Real?

Someone who recently fell in love with Tony's work (through the blog!) bought this oil and seems to worry if it is the real thing. That is a fair question because I know of two instances, one in Antwerp and one in LA where another painter copied Tony's work. In Antwerp the guy (Frank) would pick up discarded drawings and then color them in. The US the painter was more subtle. As far as I can tell by the photograph it would be an oil painting and there are enough points of recognition in his way of handling the paint to think it is a genuine Mafia. Tony would do strange things, but the signature, the mask on the top right hand corner and the way the ladder is done would reassure me. If anybody knows more about the painting, please tell us.

The Chapel

It is time for some religion. This drawing (watercolor? oil?) which Tony named the Chaple -remember he was dyslexic- was send by Spooky who found it on the net for sale. Tony regularly did religious drawings, called himself catholic, wanted a catholic funeral but doubted the existence of God as told. But being sick and often near to dying he needed someone to bargain with. This pretty drawing is from 1971 and I am pretty sure that it is in the States. Who knows more about it?

Two fotographs

The titles suggest that both drawings go together: The bottom one is called 'What I am' and the top one 'Where I am". Note the pigeons, this suggests to me it is a European drawing, note the horses and Indians, well just his soul speaking. Who knows anything about these mixed media drawings?

Not to look

This is a picture I found in Tony's rickety trailer. I have seen him paint other parrots once in while. He loved birds. At a certain point we had 27 bird cages in a small apartment. Waking up to all that song was fun. If anybody knows anything about this painting, please share with the world, when, where, whom and so on.

Indians

As far as I can tell, these Indians stem from Los Angeles, probably 1986. It is one of the found pictures in Tony's old trailer. Any additional info is welcome.

Does anyone know?

There are many drawings and paintings of Tony out there: love, lost, acquired, received as a gift, lost again and found by someone who cares. This is one of those paintings. Zan, the proud owner, would like to know more about it, can anybody help him/her out? he tells me the canvas isn't in good shape and suspect it to be fairly old. As far as I can tell, I think it stems from the late fifties. In that period he lived on and off in Tijuana and Frank Sinatra asked his chauffeur George to go and find Tony and bring his portfolio. Tony told me Sinatra owned about 17 of his drawings and gave two to Queen Elizabeth when he was received at her palace. The painting has a clear Mexican iconography. It could be early sixties, briefly after he met his Danish wife, if the one female with the sleek hair has blue eyes. My bet is however on his Mexican period. I love the little sun and of course the telltale Tony flower.