In early 1929 , Bloom made news when he announced that he had acquired a previously unknown oil portrait of former First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln , the widow of slain president Abraham Lincoln . Bloom claimed shortly before President Lincoln was assassinated on April 14 , 1865 , Mary Lincoln commissioned painter Francis Bicknell Carpenter ( who had lived at the White House for six months during Lincoln 's presidency and had previously painted '' First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln '' ) to paint a portrait of her as gift to her husband . After the President 's death , Bloom claimed that Mary Lincoln was unable to pay Carpenter for the painting and asked him to destroy it . According to Bloom , Carpenter kept the painting and eventually sold it to a wealthy Philadelphia shipbuilder named Jacob G. Neafie who was a great fan of President Lincoln 's . After Neafie died , Bloom said that Neafie 's daughter inherited the portrait who then gave it to Bloom 's sister Susan as gift for taking care of her mother , Anna " Annie " Neafie , who died in 1860 . Upon Susan 's death in 1910 , Bloom inherited her art collection which he said included the portrait of Mary Lincoln
assassinated on April 14 , 1865
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Lew Bloom