Overdrawn

M was a moderately successful and moderately proficient artist. His works achieve surprisingly high prices when they are sold and yet are hardly ever exhibited.

M lived in the same town as the vastly-more-famous F. Unlike the sensible, commercially-minded M, F followed the approved artistic path of living in poverty and only achieving recognition, wealth and fame posthumously. He died leaving a pile of debts and another pile of unsold, and, most people agreed, unsellable, paintings. The moderately successful and commendably frugal M bought the paintings and, for the next ten years painted over them so that he could re-use the canvases for his own, moderately proficient works.

When M's works are bought, nowadays, they are rushed to the X-Ray specialists and thence (assuming the specialist gives the nod) to the restorers. The world has another masterpiece by F. And one fewer, moderately proficient, piece by M.