Painter's Prized Work Is Saved While Bel Air Mansion Burns To The Ground
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA) -- After a Bel Air mansion burned to the ground, one artist was touched that firefighters were able to save his prized painting.
A photo of the painting against the backdrop of the home that was destroyed has gone viral.
CBS2's Brittney Hopper spoke to the world-renowned painter, Daniel Maltzman, Saturday.
The photograph really tells a story. A profound story. And in the photograph is his painting and it has the artist of the painting in tears.
Maltzman -- who's based in Los Angeles -- was watching the fire coverage closely when he saw the photograph. Thick black smoke in the background, a home burned to the ground, a firefighter pulling a hose and his painting unharmed.
"It's not about the picture. It's not about my painting. It's about the firefighters and it's about the gentleman that actually took that shot of the painting and it was so surreal that when I got it I was completely in shock."
Maltzman is very private about who his clients are only saying they are some of the world's most elite art collectors, as well as A-list celebrities. He wont even disclose how much his paintings sell for but they start in the thousands. He says his paintings are his babies.
"My paintings mean a lot to me and when I saw that it meant a lot to someone else it makes me cry. But to get that kind of feeling that somebody cared that much about that painting, I was taken."
After seeing the photograph he says he immediately contacted his client to make sure everyone got out safely. He says that's what most important.
"Thank goodness these people are okay and thank goodness we have these firefighters saving us and helping us and doing this job that is very, very difficult," Malzman said.
The painting that was saved also has special meaning to Maltzman -- it's on all of his business cards and the model, Kate Moss, is his muse.
For more about Maltzman, click on his official website.
