You never know what treasures you'll find in a thrift store, and if you have an eye for old furniture, old comics, or famous paintings -you may find something. Recently a painting purchased at a Thrift store in Massachusetts for just $4.00 is selling on auction for $250,000! Here's the story:
(Image: N.C. Wyeth painting, "Ramona." SOURCE: Bonhams Skinner Auction House)
N.C. Wyeth painting bought for $4 in New England thrift store to be auctioned off
The painting by the famous Maine painter is expected to fetch up to $250,000
MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — A painting by the famous Maine painter N.C. Wyeth will soon be auctioned off after it was found in an antique shop.
According to auction house Bonhams Skinner, the painting, titled "Ramona," was found "by chance" and purchased from Savers in Manchester, New Hampshire for $4.
The painting will be auctioned off on Sept. 18 and is expected to fetch between $150,000 and $250,000.
The oil-on-panel painting is 25 1/8 inches tall and 16 7/8 inches wide.
The Bonham's listing provides the following description and background: "After a published cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post at age 20, NC Wyeth forged a successful career as an illustrator, working regularly for publishers of periodicals and novels. His work was renowned for its ability to increase the drama and character development of the accompanying text, something he achieved with vibrant, action-packed scenes, vivid colors, and a skillful use of light and shadow.
For a 1939 edition of Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona (originally published in 1884), Wyeth contributed four illustrations, only one other of which has been located. Jackson's novel tells the story of a half Scottish, half Native American orphan living in Southern California after the Mexican-American War.
In this image, Wyeth deftly portrays the tension between Ramona and her rigid and overbearing foster mother, Señora Moreno. The frame on this painting seems to be of the artist's choice, the basic molding he used to protect the edges and corners of his illustrative paintings when sent by train from his Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, studio to publishers in Philadelphia or New York. Found by chance in a New Hampshire antique shop, this work likely was gifted by Little, Brown and Company publishers to an editor or to the estate of the author."
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