Woman bought necklace for $15; years later, it sold at Christie’s for $267,750

A woman, named Norma Ifill from Philadelphia, paid just $15 for an unusual necklace at a Brooklyn flea market, wore it for years without knowing its origin, and only later learned it was a work by Alexander Calder, according to a report by The Sun. The forgotten piece, a silver wire and cord necklace made around 1940, was consigned to Christie’s and sold in the auction house’s First Open sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art in 2013 for $267,750, including buyer’s premium. Christie’s results show the necklace, catalogued as “Untitled (Necklace),” achieved the high end of its $200,000 to $300,000 estimate, turning a thrift-store find into one of the standout stories of the sale.