Paintings by Chuck Close once sold for as much as $4.8 million. He offered the painting to Sotheby’s, which scheduled it for auction last December but then withdrew it because Mr. Close’s studio and longtime gallery had no record of the painting. Instead of a jackpot, Mr. Herman had a bill for $1,742, for stretching the canvas onto a frame. “One reader commented that I was the Dude redux,” Mr. Herman said, referring to the lovable stoner in the Coens’ “The Big Lebowski.”He so is. Mr. Herman passed.

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Persons: Herman, Chuck Close, Caroline White, White’s, Mr, Herman said, Alfred Fuente —, ”, —, Close’s, Taylor Curry Organizations: University of Massachusetts, New York Times, Heritage Locations: Chelsea, New York