Michigan garage find of Gertrude Abercrombie painting heads to New York auction
A $30 purchase at a Michigan estate sale turned out to be a 1951 Gertrude Abercrombie painting, now slated for a New York auction with an estimated price of $150,000-$250,000.
While searching for mid-century furniture at a Michigan estate sale, a buyer acquired an unremarkable 8-by-11-inch painting for $30, later identified as Gertrude Abercrombie’s 1951 work “Alderman Merriam’s Shells.” Authentication by Roosevelt University professor emerita Susan Weininger confirmed its origin, linking it to a 1952 exhibition catalog and one outlet's review. The anonymous consignor, who altered a family trip to see Abercrombie’s retrospective at the Milwaukee Art Museum, will consign the piece to Freeman’s in New York, where senior vice president Zachary Wirsum expects it to sell for $150,000-$250,000.
Abercrombie, a Chicago-based painter with a cult following, has seen her market values rise dramatically, exemplified by a 1956 painting that sold for $256,000 earlier this year. Curators like Eric Crosby, who co-organized the traveling retrospective, note the growing interest in her work and its Chicago-centric artistic context.
