OPINION
It’s the sort of thing Antiques Roadshow dreams are made of: the bit of op-shop tat that turns out to be a long-lost masterpiece, worth a tidy fortune.
Mostly, though, what people are holding on to really is just a bit of old tat. If you don’t believe me, check out the Facebook group Terrible Art in Charity Shops. Very rarely, though, something truly valuable does show up by serendipity.
A woman searching for old frames at a thrift shop accidentally struck gold when she found a lost N C Wyeth painting for only $4 – though she wouldn’t know it until six years later.
Now, experts estimate the painting will sell for as much as a quarter of a million dollars at auction.
The shopper found a “quite heavy and dusty” painting wedged in a stack of other unwanted artworks in a thrift shop in New Hampshire. After hanging it on her wall for a while, she put it in storage and forgot about. When she came across it during a spring cleaning, she posted a photo on Facebook, where it caught the eye of conservator Lauren Lewis.
Lewis drove three hours to see the painting and determined it was “actually legitimate and valuable”, the auction house said.
“While it certainly had some small scratches and it could use a surface clean, it was in remarkable condition considering none of us had any idea of its journey over the last 80 years,” Lewis said in an interview with the Boston Globe.
The painting was one of four illustrations by Wyeth for a 1939 edition of the Helen Hunt Jackson novel Ramona. The auction house believes the painting is an original and was likely a gift from Wyeth or the book publishers to the editor or Jackson’s estate. The location of one of the other illustrations is known, but two of the four are lost.
All That’s Interesting
You never know: they might be in op shops somewhere, too.
Another accidental find fulfils the criteria of being both terrible art and extremely valuable.
David Bowie was an artist of astronomical talent. The singer modified his musical persona for decades, influencing both fashion and music itself in the process.
His paintings, though, much less so. They certainly don’t scream “lost masterpiece”. No wonder one of them ended up in an op-shop.
Bought for $4.10, it’s now selling for at least $18,000.
Unfortunately for the individual who parted with the piece, David Bowie’s signature glaringly adorns the back of the 9.75 by eight-inch canvas. It also bears a description that reiterates the artist’s name and classifies the work as an “acrylic and computer collage on canvas” from 1997, according to CNN […]
“The painting itself caught their eye,” said Rob Cowley, president of auction house Cowley Abbott, about the painting’s lucky owner. “They thought it was an interesting painting before they turned it around… There’s a label on the back and it quite clearly identifies the work, so she of course wondered if it could be authentic.”
All That’s Interesting
“Interesting” is one word to describe it.
It might also describe another painting which has attracted some reason fame – although not for its artistic merit, or the fame of its painter.
36-year-old Zoe Elliot-Brown bought the portrait of the little girl from Hastings Advice and Representation Centre (HARC) for $25. It had been returned by its previous owner for having a “creepy aura.”
“Another lady came in and noted how creepy it looked, and then she came back and bought it, and then she brought it back a couple of days later saying that it had ruined her life,” Elliott-Brown explained according to the New York Post.
Undeterred, Elliott-Brown took it home herself.
[Her] mother started feeling shaky and having hot flashes. She collapsed in the bathroom. One day, Elliot-Brown said she woke up to find her mother caressing the cheeks of the girl in the painting.
And that wasn’t all. Elliot-Brown said she began hearing phantom knocking at her door in the middle of the night.
But the final straw for Elliot-Brown came when she and her boyfriend were taking a walk, and suddenly, a “big black figure” appeared before them.
“[My boyfriend] grabbed me, and we began running back the way we had come,” Elliot-Brown said. “He was screaming that it was right behind him.”
When a shaken Elliot-Brown took the painting to the shop where she worked, her manager Steve Elledge suggested destroying it. “That would make it worse,” she replied. Instead, borrowing from the plot of The Ring perhaps, she put it back on sale.
This time, Elledge put the painting back in the window with a note that read, “She’s back!!! Sold twice and returned twice! Are you brave enough???”
All That’s Interesting
With the picture going viral on social media, thanks to Facebook groups like Terrible Art… and on X, someone was indeed brave enough. The painting sold for $2,000 on eBay. The proceeds will be split between Elliot-Brown and the charity that runs the shop.
Perhaps that will be enough to break the apparent curse.