{"id":870385,"date":"2026-10-04T10:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870385\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T10:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T10:56:15","slug":"painting-snagged-at-estate-sale-for-30-fetches-1-35-million-at-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/870385\/","title":{"rendered":"Painting snagged at estate sale for $30 fetches $1.35 million at auction"},"content":{"rendered":"

A painting<\/a> snagged at an estate sale for just $30 sold at auction for a record-breaking $1.35 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The late famed surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie\u2019s \u201cAlderman Merriam\u2019s Shells,\u201d which was purchased by a fortunate thrifter with an eye for quality art, sold on Thursday at Freeman\u2019s Auctions<\/a> on the Upper East Side. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we are over the moon about the record-setting result,\u201d Zachary Wirsum, senior vice president at Freeman\u2019s, told the Chicago Sun Times<\/a>. \u201cWhat a return on a $30 investment!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaintingGertrude Abercrombie\u2019s painting \u201cAlderman Merriam\u2019s Shells\u201d sold for over $1.3 million. Freeman’s<\/p>\n

The buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, happened upon the painting at the July estate sale of Dr. John T. Reynolds of Kalamazoo, Michigan, who had been gifted it by Abercrombie as payment for medical services in 1952, according to Freeman\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The shopper \u2014 who collects vinyl records and furniture \u2014 was drawn to the 8\u00d711 oil-on-masonite\u00a0painting after seeing that the lower-left corner was signed \u201cAbercrombie, \u201951.\u201d<\/p>\n

The painting depicts 10 seashells owned by Robert Merriam of the Chicago City Council, who represented Hyde Park, where Abercrombie \u2014 a well-known figure in the Windy City\u2019s mid-20th century art scene \u2014 resided and painted.<\/p>\n

The one-of-a-kind work \u201coffers a glimpse into the inception of one of the artist\u2019s signature Surrealist motifs, as well as its striking composition, both technically and conceptually,\u201d Wirsum told Elle Decor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PortraitAbercrombie, who died in 1977, was a prominent figure in Chicago\u2019s mid-20th century art scene. Library of Congress<\/p>\n

The historic sale broke the record for the most expensive work by Abercrombie, who died at age 68 in 1977, sold at auction.<\/p>\n

The record was previously held by her 1950 painting \u201cMessage for Mercy,\u201d which went for $1.02 million at Sotheby\u2019s<\/a> in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A painting snagged at an estate sale for just $30 sold at auction for a record-breaking $1.35 million.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[1029,228,226,227,195,229,88,152442,149,4227,1033],"class_list":["post-870385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-auctions","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-estates","tag-lifestyle","tag-manhattan","tag-painting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}