BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. — There's an artistic mystery underway in Buffalo Grove, and Daniel Kamen is trying to get to the bottom of it.
Kamen, a retired chiropractor, is trying to figure out the original artist of a Wrigley Field-themed painting that he recently reacquired.
The painting in question was first given to Kamen by a former patient named Harold. After years of treating him, Kamen befriended Harold, who gave him the painting once in lieu of payment.
"When I first got this, Harold said that it’s something of 'The Three Stooges,'" Kamen said.
Chock full of characters, the painting actually depicts the Friendly Confines, Kamen said.
"This is Wrigley Field, because of the ivy," he explained. "Because of the banner over there, and there is a lady right there knitting a Cubs sock."
The painting also features a host of other characters, including one who Kamen says "looks like Wimpy from 'Popeye.'"
Kamen hung Harold's painting-as-payment for years on the wall of his basement office. In 2006, however, Kamen sold off the painting during some housecleaning.
"I thought it was too big," he said. "I looked at it long enough. My wife and I were going to be downsizing and selling things off from the attic in the garage, and I put it on Facebook and got a ton of responses in.
"For a lousy 50 bucks, I let it go."
But that wasn't the end of it. Kamen is a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, and he immediately regretted selling the one-of-a-kind painting.
"Oh, big-time, I was miserable without it," Kamen said. "I didn’t know (my) emotional attachment to it."
So Kamen began a quest to get his painting back, which he accomplished in July. It cost him a whopping $2,000 in cash to buy back something he sold for $50.
Kamen doesn't regret the uneven exchange.
"When (the seller) decided that he was going to sell it to me, I said, 'I’ll give you a check today,'" Kamen said. "He said, 'Oh no, I want cash.'
"I got news: It was worth it!"
Now, Kamen is trying to figure out the original artist of his reacquired treasure.
As for what exactly the painting depicts about Wrigley Field and the Cubs, Kamen has a theory. The painting features a baseball glove in the style used back in the 1940s and '50s, with the name Tommy and the number 5.
Kamen posits that the painting is a nod to former Cubs infielder Tommy Brown, who finished his career with the North Siders from 1952-53. Brown wore No. 12 with the Cubs, but he wore No. 5 — the number depicted in Kamen's painting — while playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1948-51 and the Philadelphia Phillies from 1951-52, perhaps as an homage to the legendary Joe DiMaggio, who also wore No. 5.
Brown, a shortstop who would acquire the nickname "Buckshot" from Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher, was called up to the big leagues by the Dodgers in 1944 at the tender age of 16, during a time when many older ballplayers were off serving in World War II.
"Leo Durocher named him 'Buckshot,' because his arm was so scattered," Kamen explained. "You never knew were the ball would land (on throws to first base)."
Brown himself would serve in World War II before resuming his baseball career.
Brown, now 96, is still alive and living in Florida. Kamen has indeed reached out to Brown about his painting, and the two have talked.
But like everyone else, Kamen said Brown also has no idea who the artist is behind Kamen's treasure.
So the mystery remains unsolved, though the painting is back in trusty hands.