Dube and Chotka

Sometimes the series of posts on Top eBay Chess Items by Price are more about price than they are about chess and this is one of those times. The item pictured below was titled 'Dube oil on canvas Still Life with Chess Piece and Coffee Pot' and sold at live auction for US $8500 after 36 bids. The seller's estimate had been US $2000-4000.

The description said,

Dube (Duilio or Dulie Dube Barnabe; Italian, 1914-1961), 'Still Life with Chess Pieces', oil on canvas, 32 x 40 inches, signed Barnabe lower right,

Dube, an Italian-French painter and graphic artist, received his artistic education from Giorgio Morandi in Bologna. He lived and worked since 1946 in Paris where he was strongly influenced by the work of Picasso.

Framed in a silver leaf frame with several liners measuring 46 x 53 inches. Condition Report: In generally good condition with a few superficial scratches and minor planar distortion.

Of the several names appearing in the description, a search on 'artist barnabe' returned the best results. A related image search indicates that chess was not a recurring theme in his work.

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More Chotka: A previous post in 'Top eBay Chess Items', The Artist and the Artwork (April 2015), featured a painted bronze by Anton Chotka. Over the past fortnight a similar work appeared on eBay and sold for $1300, 'Best offer accepted', on an asking price of $4999.99. A link on the auction page points to another, similar Chotka item on Sothebys.com:-

Estimate: 3000-5000 EUR; Lot sold: 7750 EUR (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)

I have no idea why the price for different, similar Chotka pieces varies so much. My 'Artist / Artwork' post showed uncertainty about Chotka's life span. Sotheby's gave 'Anton Chotka, 1878-1928'.