A drawing sold for $30 at a Concord estate sale. It is believed to be an original Drer worth $50 mi

[demmiblue]

This week, an international panel of art experts gathered at the British Museum to discuss a work whose very existence one attendee described as “a dream” — a previously unknown drawing by the Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer that some believe could fetch $50 million at market.

That would be quite a markup for the diminutive pen-and-ink drawing, which last sold around 2016 at an estate sale in Concord for $30.

The drawing, titled “The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a grassy Bench,” is being heralded as one of the most significant finds in memory. About the size of a children’s board book, the China ink drawing depicts an intimate scene where a seated Mary, dressed in flowing robes, holds the Christ child, who observes her intently.

“I was completely astonished,” said Christof Metzger, a Dürer specialist and chief curator at the Albertina Museum in Vienna, which houses one of the world’s most important troves of the artist’s drawings. “For me there’s absolutely no doubt that this is an original by Albrecht Dürer from around 1503.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/18/arts/drers-hand-global-market/

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[Frasier Balzov]

1. Just like I say to the appraisers on Antiques Roadshow...

SOLD. Now pay up.