Bought at a secondhand store for 5,000 won... It turned out to be a 300 million won artwork

Curator Who Saw Painting on SNS Hopes for Emotion
Revealed as Work by Illustrator N.C. Wires

An antique enthusiast discovered that a painting purchased for 5,000 won six years ago was actually a work worth 300 million won.

Illustration by N.C. Wires.
[Photo by Bonhams, UK auction house website]

According to foreign media reports including CNN on the 30th of last month (local time), Mr. A, an antique enthusiast, bought a painting for 4 dollars (approximately 5,300 won) at a secondhand store in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, in 2017. The painting Mr. A purchased was signed 'N.C Wyeth.' He tried to find information about the signature but found no related information. Mr. A hung the painting in his bedroom and later stored it in a wardrobe.

Six years later, in May, Mr. A found the painting while cleaning and posted a photo of it on the Facebook page 'Things Found in Walls.' Lauren Lewis, a former curator who had worked with the Wyeth family of painters, saw the post and contacted Mr. A to appraise the artwork. The appraisal revealed that the painting was by N.C Wyeth, a prominent American illustrator and the father of Andrew Wyeth, a leading American photorealist painter. It was also revealed that the painting’s value was not 4 dollars but 250,000 dollars (approximately 330 million won).

N.C Wyeth is known for frequently illustrating novel covers and illustrations, and this work was also featured as an illustration in Helen Hunt Jackson’s book 'Ramona,' published in 1984. The British auction house Bonhams announced that it will auction the painting within this month. The expected sale price is between 150,000 and 250,000 dollars (approximately 200 million to 330 million won). Former curator Lauren Lewis said, "After seeing the work in person, I was 99% sure it was authentic," adding, "There were minor blemishes, but the painting was in remarkably good condition."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.