A trip to a thrift store can uncover treasures. Usually, it’s a lamp that matches your wallpaper. Sometimes it’s a rare and lost painting worth thousands of dollars.
A woman shopping at a Savers in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2017 was drawn to an exquisitely crafted illustration of two women locked in a stern confrontation.
By rescuing the painting from the doldrums of the clearance section for a measly four dollars, she walked out of the store with an authentic oil painting from N.C. Wyeth, ‘one of the premier American illustrators of the 20th century’, the New York Times reports.
The Times reports that the piece briefly hung in the buyer’s home before being subjugated to a space in the bedroom closet, leaving the two illustrated women to continue their decades-long steely staring contest uninterrupted.
After rediscovering the painting and getting it evaluated by an art conservator, the long-lost work sold for $191,000 at auction Tuesday.
‘Ramona’ is a frontispiece illustration for Hunt Jackson’s 1939 novel of the same name, according to the auction house, Bonhams. Wyeth painted four illustrations for the novel, only one of which has been found.
“When this work was painted in Monhegan, Maine, in 1918, Henri had become increasingly devoted to his gritty, bold, and sometimes unconventional version of genre portraiture. In this work, he displayed the virtuosity of his brushwork and his keen ability to match a vivid palette with a complex pattern,” reads the description on Bonhams’ website.
The Times reports that Wyeth’s work is featured at Pennslyvania’s Brandywine Museum.
The buyer told the New York Times that while she is prepared to part with the painting, she plans to rip the miniature version out of her new copy of the ‘Ramona’ novel.
As for the Savers in Manchester?
“We are not connoisseurs of paintings. We do our best to evaluate the pieces and value them appropriately.” Savers manager Shaun Edson told the Times. “Obviously we missed the boat.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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