Thrift Store Painting Bought for $4 Expected to Auction for $250,000

A woman browsing a thrift store in New Hampshire made a fortuitous discovery when she happened across a painting that has since been confirmed to be an original work of American painter N. C. Wyeth. Now, the painting will go up for auction later this month where it's expected to fetch up to a quarter of a million dollars.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, found the Wyeth painting back in 2017 when she was looking for frames to repurpose at a Savers used clothing and thrift chain. Noticing that the piece was unusually heavy and dusty, she brought it home and hung it on her bedroom wall. Eventually the painting made its way into a closet, where she came across it while doing some recent spring cleaning.

"Not knowing what she had found, she joked about it being a real painting," a spokeswoman for Bonhams, the auction house selling the paining, told Barron's. "But after not finding anything in a quick internet search, didn't give it another thought."

This time, she consulted a few Facebook groups online, including Things Found In Walls, where users can post potential artifacts they've come across in their everyday lives, such as in a grandmother's house or buried in their backyard.

The post eventually caught the attention of Lauren Lewis, an art conservator who made the three-hour drive from Maine to see the painting in person. Lewis was soon able to confirm with a "99 percent" certainty that the painting was indeed a Wyeth. In fact, it was one of four illustrations the artist had painted for a 1939 edition of Ramona, a Helen Hunt Jackson novel.

"I am used to seeing copies of Wyeth paintings or paintings by other artists who might have been influenced by him being attributed to the artist falsely," Lewis explained. "But there were things about these photos that caught my eye."

"The owners, who had been doing their own research, were understandably thrilled with what they had, but also a bit overwhelmed," Lewis continued. "They had already approached auction houses and debated private sale, feeling that they were not the ones to be able to care for this piece as it should be."

Wyeth, who is the father of the famous artist Andrew Wyeth and grandfather of Jamie Wyeth, also a painter, was one of America's most well-known illustrators. After his first commissioned piece of art for The Saturday Evening Post in 1903, Wyeth went on to produce more than 3,000 paintings and illustrate 112 books, including Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe.

Lewis told NPR that neither the woman who found the painting nor her husband are art collectors, making the find that much more incredible.

"They are not your typical art collectors," Lewis added. "If the sale achieves expectations, "this would be life-changing for them."