A $30 painting, found in ‘dark corner’ of estate sale, fetches $1.35M at auction

An enigmatic oil painting bought for just $30 at an estate sale fetched more than $1.35 million at auction after it was confirmed to be the work of celebrated surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie.

The 8-by-11-inch still-life was discovered in a “dark corner” of a Michigan home in July, according to Freeman’s, the auction house that brought the painting to market this month. An expert has identified it as Abercrombie’s “Alderman Merriam’s Shells,” which had been unseen in public for almost 75 years.

Completed in 1951, the painting depicts a collection of ten seashells — a common motif used by Abercrombie, who is often described as American art’s “Bohemian Queen.” Over the next two years, it was exhibited at six of the painter’s solo exhibitions, then priced between $50 and $150.

But the artist never sold the work, instead gifting it to a doctor in Kalamazoo, Michigan in exchange for medical services. The mysterious painting was then passed down through the doctor’s estate following his death, before eventually appearing at July’s estate sale.

The lucky buyer, who has remained anonymous, is described by the auctioneer as “a longtime hunter of record albums and mid-century furniture.” Detailing the find, Freeman’s said the painting had been discovered “tucked in a dark corner of a hallway leading to the garage — overlooked by every other buyer that day.”

Upon seeing the signature (reading “Abercrombie, ‘51”), barely visible against the dark background, the buyer took a $30 gamble. According to Freeman’s, they then diverted a family vacation to visit Milwaukee Art Museum, where an Abercrombie exhibition was on show. There, in an exhibition catalog, a 1952 news clipping showed a photo of the painting next to the real-life shells it depicts.

The bargain hunter then took the artwork to Freeman’s auction house, which was one of the exhibition sponsors. Abercrombie expert Susan Weininger, an art history professor at Roosevelt University, later authenticated the work as genuine — and still in its original frame. The painting was subsequently cleaned by art restorer Julian Baumgartner, who, in a video documenting his work, described it as being in “perfect condition,” aside from some grime and clouded varnish on its surface.

“It was drab, missing its life, but now cleaned, retouched, and revarnished, it’s alive and radiant,” he said.

The painting had been valued by Freeman’s at $150,000 to $250,000, though bids at last Thursday’s sale far surpassed estimates, setting a new auction record for Abercrombie’s work. In 2025, Sotheby’s sold another of Abercrombie’s paintings, “Message for Mercy” for a then-record of $1.02 million, more than triple its high estimate.

A largely self-taught artist, Abercrombie, who died in 1977, was renowned for her otherworldly, dream-like compositions. She was also known for hosting legendary salons at her home, in Chicago’s Hyde Park, where jazz stars like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker often performed.

Snail shells and seashells (along with owls, cats, mysterious doorways and, in her own words , “simple things that are a little strange”) were recurring themes of her work. They often appeared cracked or marked with holes and set against Abercrombie’s signature sparse backdrops, whether barren moonlit landscapes or deep black voids. Some of her other uncanny compositions placed shells beside cryptic flags and dominoes or, in cases like 1967’s “Snail Woman,” birthing abstracted female figures.

Objects in Abercrombie’s highly autobiographical works usually symbolized parts of her own experiences and identity, rather than abstract ideas. “I always paint myself,” she once said. Freeman’s auction listing meanwhile suggests that shells “served as a talisman of friendship, typically gifted to those closest to her.”

In a press release prior to Thursday’s sale, the auction house’s senior vice president Zachary Wirsum described the painting’s rediscovery as “magnificent.” He recalled telling visitors at the Milwaukee exhibition that Abercrombie’s paintings do, occasionally, crop up at estate sales. “Little did I know that one of those ‘once in a while’s would occur less than a month later,” Wirsum is quoted as saying.

一幅神秘的油画在遗产拍卖会上仅以 30 美元的价格售出，在被确认为著名超现实主义画家格特鲁德·阿伯克龙比的作品后，在拍卖会上拍出了超过 135 万美元的价格。

据弗里曼拍卖行（Freeman's）称，这幅8英寸乘11英寸的静物画于7月在密歇根州一户人家的“阴暗角落”被发现。弗里曼拍卖行本月将这幅画推向市场。一位专家鉴定其为阿伯克龙比的《梅里厄姆议员的贝壳》，这幅画作此前已近75年未曾公开露面。

这幅画作完成于1951年，描绘了十枚贝壳——这是阿伯克龙比常用的主题，她常被誉为美国艺术界的“波西米亚女王”。在接下来的两年里，这幅画在画家举办的六次个展中展出，当时的售价在50美元到150美元之间。

但这位艺术家从未出售过这幅画作，而是将其赠予密歇根州卡拉马祖市的一位医生，以换取医疗服务。这幅神秘的画作在医生去世后经由其遗产传承，最终出现在七月份的遗产拍卖会上。

这位幸运的买家一直保持匿名，拍卖行称他是一位“长期收藏唱片和20世纪中期家具的爱好者”。弗里曼拍卖行在详细介绍这件发现时说，这幅画是在“通往车库的走廊一个昏暗的角落里发现的——那天其他所有买家都忽略了它”。

买家看到在深色背景下几乎难以辨认的签名（“Abercrombie，'51”），便冒险花了30美元买下了这幅画。据弗里曼拍卖行称，他们随后改变了一次家庭度假计划，前往密尔沃基艺术博物馆参观阿伯克龙比的画展。在那里，他们在展览图录中发现了一张1952年的新闻剪报，上面刊登了这幅画的照片，旁边是画中描绘的真实贝壳。

这位精明的买家随后将这幅画作带到了弗里曼拍卖行，该拍卖行是此次展览的赞助商之一。罗斯福大学艺术史教授、阿伯克龙比专家苏珊·韦宁格后来鉴定这幅画作为真迹，并且仍保留着原装画框。之后，艺术修复师朱利安·鲍姆加特纳对这幅画进行了清洁。在一段记录其工作过程的视频中，鲍姆加特纳称这幅画“状态完美”，除了表面有一些污垢和略微模糊的清漆外。

“它以前黯淡无光，毫无生气，但现在经过清洁、修饰和重新上漆，它焕然一新，光彩夺目，”他说。

弗里曼拍卖行此前对这幅画的估价为15万至25万美元，但上周四的拍卖结果远超预期，创下了阿伯克龙比作品的拍卖新纪录。2025年，苏富比拍卖行曾以102万美元的价格售出阿伯克龙比的另一幅画作《怜悯的讯息》，当时的成交价也创下了纪录，是其最高估价的三倍多。

阿伯克龙比是一位主要靠自学成才的艺术家，于1977年去世，她以其超凡脱俗、如梦似幻的画作而闻名。她还以在位于芝加哥海德公园的家中举办传奇沙龙而著称，爵士乐明星如迪兹·吉莱斯皮和查理·帕克经常在那里演出。

蜗牛壳和贝壳（以及猫头鹰、猫、神秘的门，用她自己的话说，“一些略显怪异的简单事物”）是她作品中反复出现的主题。它们常常以裂纹或孔洞的形象出现，与阿伯克龙比标志性的简约背景相映成趣，无论是荒凉的月光景色还是深邃的黑色虚空。她的一些其他奇特作品则将贝壳置于神秘的旗帜和多米诺骨牌旁，或者像1967年的作品《蜗牛女人》那样，让贝壳孕育出抽象的女性形象。

阿伯克龙比高度自传性的作品中出现的物品通常象征着她自身经历和身份认同的某些方面，而非抽象概念。“我总是画我自己，”她曾说过。与此同时，弗里曼的拍卖清单表明，贝壳“是友谊的护身符，通常赠予她最亲近的人”。

在周四拍卖会前的新闻稿中，拍卖行高级副总裁扎卡里·维尔苏姆（Zachary Wirsum）称这幅画的重见天日“令人振奋”。他回忆起在密尔沃基展览上告诉参观者，阿伯克龙比的画作偶尔会在遗产拍卖会上出现。“我万万没想到，不到一个月后，这种‘偶尔’的情况就发生了，”维尔苏姆说道。