Did Jimmy Kimmel really buy topless Bea Arthur painting for Jeff Ross?

Earlier this month, a bidder at Christie’s record-setting auction decided that artist John Currin’s painting of Golden Girls star Bea Arthur topless was worth $1.9 million. That bidder might just have been late night comic Jimmy Kimmel, who then gave it to friend Jeff Ross.

Ross, a fellow comic, tweeted yesterday afternoon that he just got the “biggest surprise of my life” and posted a picture of himself posing with the painting. He directed the tweet to Kimmel, who he called “the most generous guy in the world!”

Kimmel replied, “Bea is watching over all of us, but especially you,” which only added to the speculation that he bought the painting just for Ross. E! News notes that in another tweet, Ross replied, “Amen, brother.”

While this sounds like a really cool and generous move, Kimmel later denied the assumption that he was the one who put down $1.9 million on the painting on May 15. “Contrary to "news" reports, I didn't buy the Bea Arthur painting - not even for @realjeffreyross - but I did buy the Mona Lisa Lampanelli,” Kimmel wrote.

Maybe Ross was the one who paid for it. After all, after the auction, he tweeted a picture of it and wrote, “I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU, BEA.”

The painting was completed in 1991 and was originally bashed by critics. Arthur didn’t actually sit for the painting, which shows her staring blankly at the viewer. Christie's expected the piece to sell between $1.8 million and $2.5 million.

image: Jeff Ross/Mobypicture.com

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