The young woman acquired the art piece at a thrift shop in New Hampshire and years later discovered its true value.

A woman was in a thrift shop in Manchester, New Hampshire, when she found a painting she fell in love with and bought it for only $4. Years later it was revealed to her that it could be auctioned for up to $250,000.

Her acquisition turned out to be an original piece by the artist Newell Convers Wyeth, a member of a renowned lineage of American painters, which despite its age was in optimal condition for sale, according to the specialised media News Art.

The woman bought the painting Ramona, inspired by Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel of the same name, in 2017. For several years she displayed it in the living room of her home until she decided to keep it in her wardrobe after finding no information about it.

The art piece was rediscovered by its owner after a wardrobe cleaning and she decided to share images of it on Facebook, and serendipity brought it to the eyes of a Brandywine River Museum of Art curator.

Lauren Lewis, a museum official, drove from Pennsylvania to Portsmouth to see the painting in person and was delighted with what she found: Newell Wyeth’s signature was in the top left corner of the painting, painted in 1939.

Why is the work so valuable?

The author’s reputation gives his work a special value to collectors, because his surname is a key name in the history of American art. The painting is believed to have been a gift from the publisher of the novel Ramona to the artist himself, or a person involved in the book. It is not known how it came to be in a second-hand shop.

According to Sotheby‘s auction house, NC Wyeth’s pieces can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, for example: Indian love call is worth 1 million 200 thousand dollars; while Portait of a Farmer is worth 3 million 500 thousand. The piece that the woman bought for $4 is expected to be auctioned in September for $150,000 and $250,000.

Así serían los perfiles de protagonistas de pinturas clásicas si tuvieran Tinder.