A $30 painting, found in 'dark corner' of estate sale, fetches $1.35M at auction

An enigmatic oil painting bought for just $30 at an estate sale fetched more than $1.35 million at auction after it was confirmed to be the work of celebrated surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie.

The 8-by-11-inch still-life was discovered in a "dark corner" of a Michigan home in July, according to Freeman's, the auction house that brought the painting to market this month. An expert has identified it as Abercrombie's "Alderman Merriam's Shells," which had been unseen in public for almost 75 years.

Completed in 1951, the painting depicts a collection of ten seashells — a common motif used by Abercrombie, who is often described as American art's "Bohemian Queen." Over the next two years, it was exhibited at six of the painter's solo exhibitions, then priced between $50 and $150.

But the artist never sold the work, instead gifting it to a doctor in Kalamazoo, Michigan in exchange for medical services. The mysterious painting was then passed down through the doctor's estate following his death, before eventually appearing at July's estate sale.

The lucky buyer, who has remained anonymous, is described by the auctioneer as "a longtime hunter of record albums and mid-century furniture." Detailing the find, Freeman's said the painting had been discovered "tucked in a dark corner of a hallway leading to the garage — overlooked by every other buyer that day."

Upon seeing the signature (reading "Abercrombie, '51"), barely visible against the dark background, the buyer took a $30 gamble. According to Freeman's, they then diverted a family vacation to visit Milwaukee Art Museum, where an Abercrombie exhibition was on show. There, in an exhibition catalog, a 1952 news clipping showed a photo of the painting next to the real-life shells it depicts.

The bargain hunter then took the artwork to Freeman's auction house, which was one of the exhibition sponsors. Abercrombie expert Susan Weininger, an art history professor at Roosevelt University, later authenticated the work as genuine — and still in its original frame. The painting was subsequently cleaned by art restorer Julian Baumgartner, who, in a video documenting his work, described it as being in "perfect condition," aside from some grime and clouded varnish on its surface.

"It was drab, missing its life, but now cleaned, retouched, and revarnished, it's alive and radiant," he said.

The painting had been valued by Freeman's at $150,000 to $250,000, though bids at last Thursday's sale far surpassed estimates, setting a new auction record for Abercrombie's work. In 2025, Sotheby's sold another of Abercrombie's paintings, "Message for Mercy" for a then-record of $1.02 million, more than triple its high estimate.

A largely self-taught artist, Abercrombie, who died in 1977, was renowned for her otherworldly, dream-like compositions. She was also known for hosting legendary salons at her home, in Chicago's Hyde Park, where jazz stars like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker often performed.

Snail shells and seashells (along with owls, cats, mysterious doorways and, in her own words, "simple things that are a little strange") were recurring themes of her work. They often appeared cracked or marked with holes and set against Abercrombie's signature sparse backdrops, whether barren moonlit landscapes or deep black voids. Some of her other uncanny compositions placed shells beside cryptic flags and dominoes or, in cases like 1967's "Snail Woman," birthing abstracted female figures.

Objects in Abercrombie's highly autobiographical works usually symbolized parts of her own experiences and identity, rather than abstract ideas. "I always paint myself," she once said. Freeman's auction listing meanwhile suggests that shells "served as a talisman of friendship, typically gifted to those closest to her."

In a press release prior to Thursday's sale, the auction house's senior vice president Zachary Wirsum described the painting's rediscovery as "magnificent." He recalled telling visitors at the Milwaukee exhibition that Abercrombie's paintings do, occasionally, crop up at estate sales. "Little did I know that one of those 'once in a while's would occur less than a month later," Wirsum is quoted as saying.