![\"Painting](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/found-michigan-estate-sale-30-141693388.jpg\")
Gertrude Abercrombie\u2019s painting, \u201cAlderman Merriam\u2019s Shells\u201d was bought at an estate sale in Michigan for $30. Freeman’s<\/p>\nA clairvoyant collector with an eagle eye for quality art snagged a painting at a Michigan estate sale this summer for a mere $30 \u2014 and now it\u2019s expected to fetch up to $250,000 at a Manhattan auction.<\/p>\n
The unnamed buyer realized they might have something special on their hands when they spotted a signature in the lower-left corner of the thrifted artwork \u2014 \u201cAbercrombie, \u201951.\u201d <\/p>\n
And they were right.<\/p>\n
Gertrude Abercrombie\u2019s painting, \u201cAlderman Merriam\u2019s Shells\u201d was bought at an estate sale in Michigan for $30. Freeman’s<\/p>\n
The signature belonged to the late legendary American surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie.<\/p>\n
Wanting to learn more about the artist of their newly acquired piece, the savvy purchaser visited the touring exhibition, \u201cGertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery\u201d at the Milwaukee Art Museum \u2014 and was shocked to see a photo of their painting \u2014 \u201cAlderman Merriam\u2019s Shells\u201d \u2014 in its original frame in the exhibition\u2019s catalog.<\/p>\n
Susan Weininger, an art historian at Roosevelt University considered to be an expert on Abercrombie, authenticated the painting, according to Smithsonian magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n The lucky buyer, \u201ca longtime hunter of record albums and mid-century furniture,\u201d then contacted Freeman\u2019s Auctions<\/a>, which was sponsoring the exhibit \u2014 and now the auction house is selling the piece at their Upper East Side location in its \u201cPost-War & Contemporary Art<\/a>\u201d auction on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n The artwork depicts nine seashells that belonged to Robert Merriam, an alderman on the Chicago City Council who represented Hyde Park, where Abercrombie \u2014 a prominent figure in the Windy City\u2019s mid-20th century art scene\u00a0\u2014 lived and painted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe shells are alluringly awkward and seemingly lonely in a crowd, much like Abercrombie herself. It\u2019s mesmerizingly mysterious, as with all her finest paintings,\u201d Zack Wirsum, senior vice president at Freeman\u2019s,\u00a0told Artnet<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ironically, just weeks prior to the auction<\/a> house\u2019s acquisition, Wirsum had told visitors that works by Abercrombie \u2014 who died in 1977 at\u00a068 \u2014 are sometimes discovered at estate sales. <\/p>\n![\"Gelatin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/gelatin-silver-summary-photograph-shows-141693535.jpg\")
Abercrombie was a prominent figure in the Chicago art scene in the mid 20th century. Library of Congress<\/p>\n