Renoir painting found at US flea market

[alp227]

Source: AP

A woman who paid $7 (£4) for a box of trinkets at a West Virginia flea market two years ago apparently acquired an original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir without knowing it.

The woman considered discarding the painting to salvage its frame, but instead made an appointment to have it evaluated in July by the Potomack Co. auction house in Alexandria, Virginia, said its fine arts director Anne Norton Craner.

When the woman pulled the painting out of a garbage bag she carried it in, Craner was nearly certain the painting was a Renoir with its distinct colours, light and brushwork. A plaque on the front labelled it "Renoir."

"My gut said that it was right, but you have to then check," Craner said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/13/renoir-painting-flea-market-virginia

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[elleng]

1. Nice! West Virginia!

[awoke_in_2003]

6. I was going to post...

the same thing. "west Virginia, mountain mama, take me home, country roads"

[TheDebbieDee]

2. Wow! That IS one helluva frame.........

[underpants]

10. Yeah it says "Renoir" on it and everything

THAT should have been a sign


--just kidding.

Great story.

[geckosfeet]

3. great story - that looks like a frame from a museum or formal collection

[AsahinaKimi]

4. Is this what happens

to some stolen paintings? Ending up in a flea market? wow....

[Mnemosyne]

5. Last seen in 1926. How cool. nt

[Pachamama]

7. Who is Renny Wahr?

[hunter]

8. These stories always make me a little sad...

... because the history has got to be sad.

Maybe there's an older person who knows what a painting is who suffers dementia or dies suddenly and nobody else knows what they've got. Or maybe there's a nasty family breakup and stuff gets put into a storage locker which is then auctioned off, etc...

My own parents knew their parents had some important family heirlooms (no Renoirs, mostly just things like family photos) but it took years for them to sort everything out. One of my grandmas became a reclusive hoarder and her stuff was especially difficult. She kept many things in styrofoam fast food boxes. Some of these boxes had money, jewelry and keepsakes in them, others had half-eaten mummified lunches or junk mail. Every styrofoam box, and there were hundreds, had to be sorted through...

[Beacool]

9. What a great find!!!

I love yard sales and flea markets, but I have yet to find something so valuable.

[alphafemale]

11. I'm trying to picture the look on that appraisers face

When she pulled a Renoir out of a garbage bag.

I didn't read the link but my guess is it was stolen long upon ago?

In which case she should be compensated (very well) but it should be returned.

om edit.

OK I read the link. So probably not stolen, Just lost in a sense There's no way an original Renoir is worth only $75K though. I'd say ten times that....easily.