lost Gertrude Abercrombie painting ‘Alderman Merriam’s Shells’ bought for $30 heads to auction

A painting bought for just US$30 (about $50) at an estate sale is expected to sell for as much as US$250,000 at a New York auction after being identified as a long-lost work by acclaimed American surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie.

The artwork, titled Alderman Merriam’s Shells , was discovered earlier this year by an unnamed collector who purchased it after noticing the inscription “Abercrombie ’51” in the lower corner.

According to Artnet and Freeman’s auction house, the buyer later realised the painting may be important after visiting an Abercrombie exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

At the exhibition, the person looked through a catalogue of Abercrombie’s work and saw an archival photograph from 1952 of the painting they had just purchased.

The owner contacted art historian Susan Weininger, an authority on Abercrombie’s work, who confirmed the painting was genuine, according to Smithsonian magazine.