Renoir from the flea market, Warhol from the attic, or Where to look for masterpieces of famous artists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The world of art presents real surprises - sometimes museum exhibits turn out to be worthless fakes, and sometimes, on the contrary, people find true masterpieces in attics, in thrift stores or even in landfills. True, the lucky ones who discover such "gifts of fate" do not always win.

How Timur Bekmambetov found Bakst's drawings at a flea market

Recently, in an interview, showing reporters his house in Los Angeles, the famous director Timur Bekmambetov spoke about how at a local flea market, among carpets and some junk, he suddenly saw drawings familiar from his youth from textbooks. It turned out that a quick glance did not disappoint our master. The drawings were very similar to the original works of Bakst, made for the ballet "Scheherazade" in 2010.

The woman seller was not even able to correctly read the name of the Russian artist on the back, and as a result of a short bargaining, four drawings went to Timur for only $ 200. Experts later confirmed their authenticity. The famous director did not announce the real cost of these works, since he is not going to sell the pictures. Of course, he is incredibly pleased with this purchase. Now sketches for "Russian Seasons in Paris", thanks to Timur's instinct, adorn the legendary house that used to belong to Walt Disney - it is here that the leading figure of our cinema now lives. I must say that such amazing finds are not as rare as it might seem, especially since not all of them become public knowledge.

Drawing from a thrift store

In the summer of 2019, a New Yorker unexpectedly became the owner of a work of art worth about 100 thousand dollars. A lucky lover of antiquity found an inexpensive drawing in a small thrift store. Then, suspecting that his purchase was actually worth much more, he conducted an examination, and the guess was confirmed. It turned out that the small work was created by Egon Schiele. This artist, who lived only 28 years old, is considered today one of the most prominent representatives of Austrian Expressionism. According to experts, the cost of his drawing can reach 100 thousand dollars, and a successful buyer is already going to spend part of the wealth that unexpectedly fell on him for charity.

Renoir from the flea market

A similar case happened in 2009, and also in America. The girl found an oil painting at a flea market in a small town in Virginia, which she didn't really like. She bought it just for the sake of a beautiful frame, for only $ 7. However, fortunately, the mother of this "great art critic" turned out to be a little more knowledgeable. Seeing the purchase, she advised her daughter to contact the auction house for specialists. As a result, it turned out that the girl had come across the original of the impressionist Auguste Renoir "Landscape on the banks of the Seine". The cost of the painting was estimated at $ 75,000.

True, the unlucky customer did not manage to get rich on this deal. After tracing the path of the painting, experts found out that the canvas came to the States at the beginning of the 20th century and was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art. It was stolen from there in 1951, so it would be illegal to resell the painting now. After several years of litigation and red tape, the masterpiece was returned to the museum.

Forgotten in the closet "Electric Chair"

After all, America is a country of surprises. In July 2017, American rock musician Alice Cooper found a painting of Andy Warhol in his closet. The two stars were friends in the 1970s, and it was during this period that the pop art guru gave his friend a painting called "The Little Electric Chair." To be honest, in later years the famous musician simply forgot about this gift, and the picture lay in the closet for all the years, rolled up into a tube. Numerous tours, alcoholism, treatment in a psychiatric hospital - a stormy creative life did not contribute to collecting paintings. However, when in November 2015 a similar painting in green and black tones was sold at Christie’s auction for $ 11.6 million, the rock musician suddenly remembered a gift from an old friend, removed the masterpiece from the pantry and, shaking off the dust, showed it to experts. Those, recovering from the shock, confirmed the authenticity of the painting, which was considered lost all these years.

National treasure from the attic

Another forgotten painting was found in France, in the attic of a private mansion in Toulouse. Among the dusty trash was discovered the painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio "Judith and Holofernes". The painting has been considered lost for four centuries, and the real owner does not know how it happened. His family has owned the mansion since the end of the 19th century, but it is possible that the painting was accidentally "forgotten" in the attic much earlier. The find was immediately given the status of a national treasure of France and was estimated at 120 million euros.

Garage is a wonderland

Another happily curious incident happened with a pensioner from Arizona. The man has been proud all his life that his garage is adorned with a poster for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. When he realized that he could profitably sell his treasure, he invited an appraiser to help him more accurately determine the value of the rarity. The specialist, however, without even glancing at the precious poster, began to carefully study some "mediocre daub" that had been gathering dust in the garage next to the "true treasure" for many years. The abstract painting, as it turned out, belonged to the brush of the famous artist Jackson Pollock and was considered lost. The man got it as a gift from his sister many years ago.

In the 1950s, a woman lived in New York and moved in the bohemian world, but her brother clearly did not share her artistic tastes, therefore, until recently, he did not agree to recognize a masterpiece in the canvas. He was convinced only by an expert opinion - it turned out that the real cost of the painting was about $ 15 million. And by the way, he also managed to sell the precious poster for $ 300.

Find Penalty

Everyone knows that Germans are a very punctual nation. Their legislation can trace ownership even for a thing thrown into the trash. In the spring of 2019, an incident occurred in Cologne that surprised everyone. An unemployed elderly man found several sketches in a garbage can near the villa of the famous artist Gerhard Richter. The drawings were obviously thrown away by the author, but the neat German marginal decided to check the value of his find and, if he was lucky, sell it at auction. In order to receive a certificate of the authenticity of the drawings, he turned to the artist's archive, where his luck ended.

The archive workers suspected the unemployed art lover of theft. Nobody believed the fictional story that the drawings were presented to his friend by the author himself, they had to invent another one - about the fact that the sketches were found on the road after the garbage can turned over from the wind, and they even tried to return them to the artist but to no avail.

The harsh court, having sorted out this tangled story, decided that if the works are of value, then you still need to return them to the author, regardless of the fact that he had previously tried to get rid of these masterpieces. However, the famous artist, due to German punctuality, decided to destroy the ill-fated sketches (he said - in the trash, that means in the trash). The fact that during the proceedings they passed an expert assessment and cost, according to experts, from 60 to 80 thousand dollars, did not change his decision. And the unfortunate unemployed as a result also got a fine of 3,500 and, probably, in the future, vowed to deal with works of art.