28/3/283- Some great artists strive for years to be recognized. Others have their work vandalized with monkey offal and become instant overnight sensations.

Such is the case for one amateur painter who, while painting in Oeil de Fleur’s east park, found himself face to face with the escaped Ganborran stink-monkey, Chirpy.

“I suppose I have to call it providence, really,” said the painter. “There I was, minding my own business, giving the old sunset my own interpretation, when the beast lighted on my easle, sprayed me in the face, and proceeded to add it’s own touches to the work. A splash of urine here, a dollop of feces there. The fervor with which he aquitted the task was not something I’d seen or felt in quite some time from myself or my fellows.

“I call it, ‘Crowndon Sundown’, I think for obvious reasons.”

Given the recent flutter of activity surrounding Chirpy’s escape, it wasn’t long before a local gallery invited the young painter to showcase his Monkey Muse’s masterpiece…provided certain precautions were met.

“We wanted the painting in our gallery,” said Daniel Thornbuckberry, the venue’s curator, “But given the nature of the work, we had to take extreme measure to ensure the comfort of our guests. First of all, the piece is kept in its own private wing. Second, it, along with the young man in possession of the work, were required to remain within a nine centimetre thick glass enclosure, to prevent the smell from wafting to the other installations.”

The showcase was a smashing success. At the end of the night, Chirpy’s Crowndon Sundown was sold for 5,000 gold Imperial crowns, the highest sum of any painting ever featured at the gallery.

“I’m simply beside myself,” Thornbuckberry said of the sale. “”The amount paid for the piece dwarfs any stipend we’ve recieved from the Palace in a decade. On the one hand, I weep for the state of the art world, where a wild animal’s fecal smearings bring more attention than a new Andarade or Montserrat. On the other hand, the gallery gets 25% of the bid, so I’ll be eating something other than boiled sewet tonight.”

The buyer wished to remain anonymous.