10 incredibly valuable works of art found in unusual places
Not all art masterworks are exhibited in the great museums of the world. Some of them were discovered in unusual places that no one could have imagined. This piece highlights the most incredibly valuable works of art found in unusual places. Martin Kemp, Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University, delves into the nuances of discovering valuable art pieces, explaining why these discoveries are increasingly uncommon, how artworks become lost, and what steps individuals can take to identify potential treasures in their possession.
Source: UGC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- How common is it for valuable works of art to be discovered in unexpected places?
- What factors contribute to artworks being lost or forgotten over time?
- Examples of high-value art pieces found in surprising places
- Expert tips: how to identify whether you have a potentially valuable piece of art in your possession
- 10 incredibly valuable works of art found in unusual places
- 1. A forgotten Jackson Pollock painting found in a garage
- 2. A controversial Caravaggio found in the French attic
- 3. A tres personajes painting set with trash
- 4. A rare painting was abandoned in an old apartment
- 5. A piece of art found inside a couch
- 6. A degas found in a bus
- 7. A print found among donations in a thrift store
- 8. A painting found in an elderly woman's kitchen
- 9. A long forgotten Rembrandt painting
- 10. A historic painting by Henry Arthur McArdle found in the attic
Finding treasure in any form is one thing that mankind has pursued over the years. Humans have enjoyed treasure hunting over the years, discovering gold, diamonds, or just a good deal in a bargain bin.
How common is it for valuable works of art to be discovered in unexpected places?
In an interview, Martin Kemp, Emeritus Research Professor in the History of Art at Oxford University, explained that instances of stumbling upon a masterpiece in an attic or thrift store are increasingly rare. He said:
Things do appear, but less often than one might think. Above all, now, of course, people are much more alert. I get sent all sorts of amazing stuff, which purports to be by Leonardo, but it is not. It happens, but it happens in diminishing ways.
Nowadays, all the auctions where the auction people run are online. Even a small provincial auction will be online and available for scrutiny, and people and dealers will sit there with their screens looking at all these things.
That was how the Salvator Mundi and Leonardo were discovered. They were in a very obscure New Orleans auction of domestic things, and two New York dealers, including Robert Simon, were going through it on the Internet and thought that was interesting. They thought it was something other than Leonardo but felt it was worth following up on. So, the advent of the Internet meant that fewer things came out of nowhere, as they were.
What factors contribute to artworks being lost or forgotten over time?
Several ways lead to the disappearance or misidentification of valuable art, Kemp explains:
Ownership transfers
Something gets lost for various reasons, mainly when it changes hands. Let's take a picture that's been missing for 200 years. The record of the picture is there for up to 200 years ago, then it disappears. As it moves into undocumented hands, it moves probably by inheritance, and people have lost track of what it is.
Overrestoration
Kemp said restorations can sometimes mask the original quality of an art piece:
There are quite a lot of mechanisms by which things get overlooked. One of the things that happens a good deal is that the picture gets restored, and it gets restored in such a way that it doesn't look like the real thing.
The crude overpainting of bits of it, which have been damaged, ends by disguising what it is. You then have something called a 'sleeper' in the trade. You have something that looks vaguely like Rembrandt. You look at it, and you think that's pretty awful. But somebody sees it in the original or sees potential in it and says, ‘Let's look at this carefully.’ And after it's cleaned, if all the overpainters are stripped off, they think that's quite something.
Examples of high-value art pieces found in surprising places
Kemp recounts one of the most infamous examples — theft of the Mona Lisa:
In 1911, an Italian eemployee contracted out from the main Louvre operations to do various odd job stole the Mona Lisa. It disappeared for two—almost three years—before being found again in a rundown hotel room in Florence ,where this man, Vincenzo Peruggia, was staying. He thought the picture belonged to Italy, and he'd like to get it back to Italy.
But in the meantime, he hid it in a secret compartment in a case in a rundown cupboard. And it was a scruffy, horrible place for the Mona Lisa or any painting to be. And when he tried to cash in on his theft, get some money for it, and return the painting to Italy, the experts who went round and saw it were amazed at the horrible conditions it was kept under. And it was returned to the Louvre and now hangs there in all its glory.
Expert tips: how to identify whether you have a potentially valuable piece of art in your possession
If you suspect you might have a treasure, Kemp recommends the following steps:
- Seek professional advice: Kemp advised that individuals should be wary of “cowboys” who are prepared to manipulate evidence.
- Consult reputable auctioneers: He emphazised that although auction houses are considerable expertise, “nobody’s infallible in these things.”
- Research online: Compare the piece you discovered to known works.
10 incredibly valuable works of art found in unusual places
Like pieces of art, many of them are usually found stored safely in vaults or secure storage units. For this reason, finding valuable art in unsafe places is rare, so it becomes a natural thrill when you find a piece of art in an unexpected place.
What are some of the most unusual places where you have seen artwork displayed? Here are the top 10 incredible pieces of art found in unusual places.
1. A forgotten Jackson Pollock painting found in a garage
Source: Getty Images
In 2016, a retiree Gordon Cosgriff was moving into assisted living and called an appraiser. Cosgriff had hired Levine to determine how much an LA Lakers Basketball poster could be worth.
However, Levine's eye was caught by a green and orange painting with a Jackson Pollock signature on it. This painting was just under another pile of art in the dusty garage.
After this incident, Levine could not rest until he could prove that the painting was real. He hired a borderline hunt to prove the authenticity of the painting.
Levine also hired a private investigator to learn more about Gordon's history. He found out that Gordon's late half-sister lived in the Bing Apple in the 1950s.
Jennifer Gordon was considered the family's black sheep, and therefore she hobnobbed with some provocative artists, among them Jackson Pollock. The painting was worth $15 million.
2. A controversial Caravaggio found in the French attic
Source: Getty Images
The $170 million painting was found in the attic of a French family who had owned it since the 1800s. The painting had miraculously survived a leaky attic along with old dusty mattresses and other old stuff.
Surprisingly, the family could still not see the painting as they were cleaning the attic one day. It also survived when thieves broke into the house and missed it.
It was until the family was cleaning out the attic on another day that they came across the painting and presented it to an auctioneer Marc Larbabe.
Larbabe then presented the art to Eric Turquin, an old master dealer, to have a look and give a second opinion. It took about three months for them to confirm it to be an original painting showing Judith beheading Holofernes done by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
Although there were some controversies about the original painter, the fact remains that this is a rare gem to have been gathering dust in the attic.
3. A tres personajes painting set with trash
Source: Getty Images
In 2003, Elizabeth Gibson, a woman who knew very little about modern art, came across this painting on her morning walk. The $1 million worth painting was originally a painting done in the 1970s by a Mexican artist.
Later a husband bought the painting to gift it to her wife, but it was later stolen as they moved out. The painting was sold at $1,049,000, and Gibson was given $15,000 for turning in the Tres Personajes painting.
The original Mexican painter was known as Rufina Tamayo, who was born in 1899 and died in 1991. His work was quite similar to the famous Diego Rivera.
4. A rare painting was abandoned in an old apartment
Source: UGC
A rare painting by Giovanni Boldinni worth $3.4 million was discovered in an old abandoned apartment left behind for 70 years. The original owner fled the apartment in Paris before World War II.
She kept paying for the apartment and never left her new home in France. However, when she died in 2010, experts had to open the apartment and catalogue what was in the apartment.
There were other expensive items covered in layers of dust in the room, but the painting attracted the most attention. First, experts confirmed that it was a Boldinni painting, and later when looking through the house, they saw a piece of paper with a Boldinni signature.
5. A piece of art found inside a couch
Source: Getty Images
A student bought a pullout couch from a flea market in Germany. When she pulled the couch over, she came across a small oil painting on the couch.
The painting is popularly known as "preparation to escape from Egypt." The original owner of the painting is unknown, but it is believed that they were a member of the inner circle of a famous artist known as Carlo Saraceni.
According to the auction house that sold it, the painting was done approximately between 1605 and 1620. Later, a bidder bought the painting for $27,630, making the student 100 times richer than what he had bought the couch.
6. A degas found in a bus
Source: Getty Images
A painting (done in the 19th century) by Edgar Degas worth millions of dollars was found in a bus.
The painting known as the Les Choristers or the chair singers can be dated back to 1877. This piece of art was stolen from the Marseilles museum nine years later, only to be discovered later on a bus near Paris.
After discovering it, experts contacted officials from the Musee d'Orsay, who confirmed that it was an authentic painting.
7. A print found among donations in a thrift store
Source: UGC
Wendy Hawkins was sitting out donations from a thrift shop in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. While sorting, she came across a print among the donations.
She took the ethereal image to a local for an examination. After a closer examination, it was discovered that woodblock printing was based on watercolours to show Dante's divine comedy.
The print had the authentic signature of the artist on it. This alone fetched the print $1200, which went to the thrift store's mission towards helping out domestic violence victims.
8. A painting found in an elderly woman's kitchen
Source: Getty Images
A painting worth $26 million was humbly hanging around in an elderly French woman's kitchen. The woman thought the painting was just a cheap reproduction and didn't know its worth.
However, an antique dealer wanted to buy her furniture, and he thought the painting could be something worth looking at.
As it turned out, the painting is among the few works from Cimabue, who was a master of Medieval painting. The painting was known as Christ Mocked, which was created in 1280.
9. A long forgotten Rembrandt painting
A slightly damaged oil painting expected to cost between $500 to $800 ended up fetching unexpected millions after some experts discovered it was a Rembrandt painting.
Rembrandt was a master painter in dutch. The painting known as "The unconscious patient'" fetched about $4 million. The price hiked because some experts in Paris discovered that the painting was among other works of Rembrandt's five sense series.
They later discovered the artist's original signature hidden under a varnish paint, proving that the paint belonged to Rembrandt. The paint was slowly flaking; its wooden block had cracked.
The Rembrandt painting had sat in a basement for years, and it was only after the owners of the house died that the painting was discovered. Even after it was discovered, it did not stick out among other items in the house.
10. A historic painting by Henry Arthur McArdle found in the attic
Source: Getty Images
Henry Arthur McArdle created a painting that showed the battle of San Jacinto in the 19th century. The painting was discovered by his descendant, who found it in her grandmother's attic. The painting ended up fetching $334,000.
These are only a few examples of the numerous works of art found in unusual places by those unaware of their value. The top artists of the time created these works of art, which are among the most expensive.
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Mercy Mbuthia (Lifestyle writer) Mercy Mbuthia is a content writer with five years of experience writing on various topics, including biographies, entertainment, and lifestyle. She joined the Legit team in 2019. Mercy earned a Master of Science (Food, Nutrition & Dietetics) from Dedan Kimathi University in 2022. Her articles have appeared on several media sites such as The Health Channel, The Nation, Tekrati, ValiantCEO and Celebrity Leader. In 2023, Mercy finished the AFP course on Digital Investigation Techniques. Email: mercymmbuthia18@gmail.com
Mary Ugbodaga (Lifestyle Journalist) Mary Ugbodaga is a Legit.ng journalist with 7 years of experience in journalism and media communications. She graduated from Covenant University in 2018 with a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication/Media Studies. Mary previously worked as a journalist at TheCable, CNBC AFRICA, Voice of Nigeria, KPMG Nigeria. Email: mary.ugbodaga@corp.legit.ng.
