Paid $30 – and discovered a lost masterpiece worth a quarter million

An antiques enthusiast from Michigan purchased a dusty painting for $30 at a house sale, which turned out to be a lost 1951 work by surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie, valued at up to $250,000. The piece, 'Councilman Marian's Shells', will be auctioned in New York on October 1.

An antiques enthusiast from Michigan arrived late to a house sale, where most items had already been snatched up. He decided to peek into the hallway leading to the garage and found a dusty gray-toned painting depicting scattered shells. In the lower left corner appeared the name and year: 'Abercrombie, ’51'. He purchased the painting for just $30. After the purchase, he detoured from a family vacation to visit a retrospective exhibition of Abercrombie at the Milwaukee Art Museum. In the exhibition catalog, he discovered an archival photograph of the painting from a review published in the Chicago Tribune in 1952. He contacted Susan Weininger, an art historian at Roosevelt University and the world's leading expert on Abercrombie's work, who confirmed its authenticity. The piece, 'Councilman Marian's Shells', will be offered for auction on October 1 in New York by Freeman's auction house, with an estimated value of up to $250,000. The painting was cleaned and restored by restorer Julian Baumgartner of Chicago. Abercrombie painted the work in 1951 inspired by nine shells that belonged to Robert Marian, a Chicago city councilman. The artist later gave the painting to a Michigan doctor in exchange for medical treatment, and the work remained with his family for about 75 years.