The American SetA $30 Estate-Sale Painting Is Testing Just How Hot the Market for Gertrude Abercrombie Has Gotten
A 1951 painting by the late artist Gertrude Abercrombie, picked up for $30 at an estate sale, is now expected to bring as much as $250,000 at auction. The estimate says less about one lucky find than about where Abercrombie's market stands today: her work is drawing renewed demand, and pieces that once passed unnoticed are being valued accordingly. A canvas bought for the price of a used lamp is now positioned to sell for a quarter million dollars, a spread that reflects how quickly appraisals can catch up once a market moves. It is the sort of gap that turns an ordinary estate sale into a story worth telling.
With reporting from Elle Decor.