$30 estate sale find authenticated as lost Gertrude Abercrombie painting to fetch $250K
A painting bought for $30 at a Michigan estate sale has been verified as a lost 1951 work by Gertrude Abercrombie and is expected to sell for up to $250,000 at auction.
A treasure hunter purchased a modestly priced canvas for $30 at an estate sale in Michigan, noting the inscription "Abercrombie, '51" in the corner. Recognizing the name, the buyer compared the image to a photograph from the "Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery" exhibition in Milwaukee and suspected it was a missing work. He enlisted Susan Weininger, a leading Abercrombie scholar at Roosevelt University, who confirmed the painting, Alderman Merriam's Shells, as a 1951 surrealist piece depicting shells from the collection of former Chicago alderman Robert Merriam.
Historical records show the work was given to Dr. John Reynolds of Kalamazoo in exchange for a medical procedure in 1952 and remained with his family for roughly three-quarters of a century. Now listed by the auction house Freeman's, experts estimate the painting could fetch between $150,000 and $250,000.
Why it matters
The discovery turns a cheap estate-sale purchase into a high-value artwork, highlighting the hidden worth of overlooked art pieces.
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