It's one thing to unexpectedly score a gorgeous piece of art at a thrift shop or in the corner of your dusty attic. But it's a complete game changer when that artwork turns out to be worth a lot of money. Surprisingly, quite a few people have been lucky enough to have something like this happen to them.
A 90-year-old French woman had zero clue that there was a goldmine right in her kitchen. For years, she lived with a small painting humbly hanging above her hotplate. She'd always assumed it was a knock-off and was even ready to toss it in the trash while clearing out her house ahead of a big move. But then, something incredible happened.
In another case of unbelievable luck, a South Carolina antiques dealer bought a "random" still life for $3. The main reason being its flashy frame. He'd apparently hoped to resell the frame, thinking it was at least a century old.
Little did he know the contents of the frame held a lot more value. When his daughter-in-law took the artwork to an antiques roadshow, it emerged that the he'd bagged a Flemish painting from 1650, which would later sell for a cool $190,000.
And, according to artandobject.com, a bargain shopper at a West-Virginia flea market unwittingly struck similar (brief) luck when she bought a painting purely for its elaborate gold frame.
"Crammed in a $7 box of trinkets, the woman planned to trash the painting but first brought it to an auction house, where it was identified as Renoir's painting Paysage Bords de Seine (Banks of the River Seine) from 1879," reports the site. "But the buyer didn't get to cash in on her find, as the Baltimore Museum of Art laid claim to the work, which had been stolen in 1951."
Meanwhile, artnet.com reports that a painting bought for just a few dollars at a thrift shop turned out to be a 17th-century masterpiece by Frans David Oerder, worth up to $120,000.
And that another dusty tiny painting found in a cupboard during a renovation was auctioned for $37. It was later authenticated as the work of British artist John Constable, and could now be worth $315,000.
The same site tells of a Victorian brooch that was bought for $25 at an antiques market. It was later identified on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow as a rare treasure by William Burges, which ended up selling for $15,000 at an auction.
While an authentic Pablo Picasso piece almost landed up in the trash. It had been hanging on the living room wall of a non-the-wiser Italian junk dealer. The artwork was even signed by Picasso, and later sold for $130,000.
In another story that might inspire you to go hunting for art treasures at your nearest secondhand shop, someone the Hamptons once bought a painting for $50 at a barn sale. They later found out it was the work of renowned Canadian artist Emily Carr.
"Titled Masset, Q.C.I. and painted in 1912, the artwork was authenticated by experts, and sold for $290,000 at auction in Toronto," reports artnet.com.
According to the Art And Object site, a volunteer called Wendy Hawkins was sifting through donations for the Hotline Pink Thrift Shop in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, when she came across a print that stood out for her.
"She took the ethereal image to a local gallery, who after closer examination and a bit of research, identified the work as a woodblock print based on watercolors Salvador Dalí created to illustrate Dante's Divine Comedy," reports the art site. "The artist's authentic signature on the print pushed its value up to $1,200, money that went towards the thrift store's mission of helping victims of domestic violence."
