Woman Who Buys $7 Flea Market Painting Realizes The Famous Painter

When she finally decided to get the pesky picture from the frame, her mom, who is a former art teacher and painter, encouraged Martha to get the painting appraised by an art specialist. The frame, she said, had a pretty famous name on it.

On the front of the image, there was a plaque that read “Renoir” — as in French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Martha took her mom’s advice and sought out the opinion of Anne Norton Craner, an expert at the Potomack Company Auction House in Virginia.

“She took it out of her plastic bag and it really looked like the real thing,” Anne said. “There was beautiful light. It looked like a painting from 1879.” When Anne examined the painting, there was a label on the back.

Anne used the label to search through Renoir’s catalogue raisonné, or comprehensive works, and got a hit. This is when Anne was almost certain the painting was the real deal — a Pierre-Auguste Renoir original. Still, she needed more evidence.

Martha was absolutely delighted to find out the legitimacy of the painting, because the auction house valued it at $75,000 to $100,000. “I’m just glad I didn’t sell it at one of my yard sales,” she said. But this wasn’t a happy ending for Martha.

While you may guess that the next part of this story involves Martha selling the Renoir and going on a nice vacation, that’s not what happened. Experts started looking into how the painting ended up at a thrift store. The answers were ugly for everyone.

The journey started when Herbert May, a Renoir collector, purchased the painting from the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris, and he took the it stateside. His wife, Saidie, was a benefactor of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Saidie and Herbert lent this painting and a few others to the Baltimore museum in 1937. But, if the painting was hung in a museum in the ’30s in Maryland, how did it end up at a Virginia flea market in 2009?

No one put any of this together until 2012, when Martha attempted to set up the auction for Paysage Bords de Seine. A reporter from the Washington Post discovered documentation that proved the artwork was stolen. Then the FBI Art Crime team stepped in and confiscated the image.

Martha wasn’t pleased by this development and started a massive legal battle with the art museum. She thought she had the right to keep the painting because she didn’t know it was stolen. That’s not how it works, Martha.

Judge Leonie Brinkema, sketched below, quickly dismissed the claim. “The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen,” Brinkema said in her ruling. Under the law, the person who purchased a stolen museum item is not the rightful owner.

“All the evidence is on the Baltimore museum’s side. You still have no evidence — no evidence — that this wasn’t stolen,” the judge told Martha’s legal team. And even if Martha could have kept the painting, it had a much lower price tag, according to the FBI.

The FBI appraiser valued Paysage at $22,000 instead. The piece needed some restoration work, and most art collectors weren’t currently interested in Renoir because they considered his style to be “old-fashioned.”

The Baltimore Museum of Art celebrated the painting’s return home as a part of the museum’s centennial party. No one knows what happened to the painting after the ’50s or how it arrived at the flea market.

The moral of the story is you can’t own something that was already stolen. Also, finding a famous painting in a flea market comes with baggage. Other painting thrifters were open to sharing their experiences with Martha. A prior theft isn’t the only pitfall.

Like Martha, Teri Horton didn’t like the painting she found thifting. There was, however, something about it that caught her attention. It was 1992, and she had just started her days as a self-proclaimed thrifter. She was stepping into a nightmare similar to Martha’s.

For 20 years, Teri worked as a big-rig driver. She was forced into retirement after a trucking accident sent her to the hospital. Not one to stay idle, Teri began to frequent thrift stores in search of hidden treasures. In fact, she’d already had some success.

Once while scavenging, Teri came across a gorgeous watch that she immediately brought to a pawn shop. It turned out to be a genuine Ebel worth $2,000! This find made Teri all the more cocky. She vowed this would be just the beginning of her incredible discoveries.

The painting at the thrift store was a bit eccentric for Teri’s taste. Still, she thought perhaps one of her friends might appreciate it. The $5 sale was quick and painless. Teri loaded the painting into her car, drove home, and called up her friend. However, there was a small issue.

Teri’s yard sale featured an array of trinkets and antiques she’d collected over the years. None of the offers, however, were meeting her expectations. Teri noticed a woman approach the $5 painting, and she rushed over to make an offer. The woman gave her a rather unexpected response.

The woman insisted that Teri’s offer was too low. When asked why she felt that way, the woman told Teri she was an art teacher with a wealth of art history knowledge. Teri’s painting, the woman claimed, could potentially be worth millions.

Millions? Teri knew she had a good eye, but didn’t think it was that good. Teri asked who might have made the painting. The woman claimed it was likely the work of the famous artist, Jackson Pollock. “Who the **** is Jackson Pollock?” Teri asked.

An American painter in the early 1900s, Jackson Pollock was famous for abstract expressionism, which essentially means a lot of splattering. Don’t be fooled, though; he used different methods of pouring and splashing to create images that are… well, hard to explain. Take a look for yourself.

Whether you appreciate Pollock’s work or not, which Teri did not, anyone can see how unique it is. There appear to be images of faces and shapes woven into the splatters that, upon closer inspection, simply disappear. Teri started to think this painting shouldn’t be sitting in her driveway.

While the prints were being tested, the expert took a look at well-known pieces by Pollock to find similarities. After hours of searching, he came to Teri with an astounding discovery: Although the prints proved undeterminable, both Teri and her son were overjoyed by the expert’s proposition.

The expert believed Teri’s $5 painting was remarkably similar to one of Pollock’s most famous pieces, “No. 5, 1948.” That title just sounded like gibberish to Teri. What she did understand, however, was the price it had sold for: $140 million. Even if Teri’s painting made that, her family would be rich!

Unfortunately, art historians weren’t in agreement. Many were insulted by Teri’s insistence that this was a first draft of Pollock’s world-famous painting. Every museum she brought it to rejected the artwork, claiming there were too many lingering questions. For example, how could the piece have traveled so far without ever being noticed?

Teri lived in California, while Pollock had lived on the other side of the country. Perhaps, Teri suggested, this painting was a throwaway that Pollock gifted to his brother who also lived in California. However, this was unlikely, as Pollock’s brother was aware of his sibling’s fame. Then there was another glaring issue.

The painting lacked a signature, which would have been the key to its identification. Teri couldn’t even backtrack the sales records as the thrift store had shut down years ago. With so many obstacles in her way, Teri had to think bigger.

Teri decided to hire a professional art dealer. This way, she figured she could get around the art snobs and nail down the price she deserved. Not long after, Teri received offers from private dealers as high as $2 million! But she couldn’t get $140 million out of her head. She insisted on more.

The painting soon caught the attention of a Saudi art collector. This time, Teri was offered $9 million! To her son’s dismay, Teri denied this gargantuan offer without blinking an eye. She said, “I know what it’s worth and I’m not gonna sell for something less than it should go for.” So, what happened next?

“It’s a story of the art world looking down its collective nose at this woman with an eighth-grade education.” Think you’d hold out as long as Teri Horton or would you have spent that $5 on a coffee? She’s not the only one who believes to have discovered a lost artistic masterpiece.

Antique collectors love getting their hands on piles of junk. If it’s been sitting in an attic, untouched for years, covered in dust with a distinct mold smell, they’ll take it. It’s not mold poisoning that compels them. Many junk lovers are simply looking to hit it big, just like Rick Norsigian.

After determining the chair was useless, Rick ended up browsing the other items. He opened a few lids and found a collection of film negatives packed into two boxes. They were being sold as a set for $75. Back then, Rick thought the price was much too high, which now makes him laugh.

Rick haggled with the seller, who’d bought them in the 1940s at a Los Angeles warehouse. Rick pointed out problems with the boxes, such as obvious wear and smoke damage. Reluctantly, the seller knocked the price down to $45, which turned out to be his biggest mistake.

Having worked there as a kid, Rick had no doubt that these photos were of the world-famous Yosemite mountains. Two years after his purchase, Rick began to suspect more. He decided to move the negatives to a secure bank vault. If he were correct about their origin, he could become a very wealthy man.

Now, if Rick were wrong about his suspicions, there would be legal consequences to pay. But he’d done his research and even consulted with professionals who claimed these prints could actually belong to the father of American photography himself.

Ansel Adams is a beloved name. His black-and-white photos of the American West inspired environmentalist efforts, including the preservation of what are now the US National Parks. He even helped establish photography as an official discipline in higher education. However, his early career faced an unfortunate tragedy.

Years of Ansel Adam’s work from the early 1930s had gone missing from the records. Most experts believed the entirety of these photographs, which would have shown his transition from amateur to master, were lost for good. How could so much of the photographer’s work disappear?

In 1937, there was a fire at Ansel’s studio, burning up thousands of his stills. When Rick claimed these negatives were the missing link to Ansel Adam’s pioneering career, he was met with harsh backlash from every side, including art directors, historians, and the Adams estate itself. Rick needed back up.

Rick hired a lawyer named Arnold Peter who claimed he could make up to $200 million from his find! Arnold quoted many experts, including a former FBI agent and a US attorney, who said, “no reasonable person would have any doubt that these, in fact, were the long-lost images of Ansel Adams.”

You don’t just march into a museum and demand $200 million for your box of junk. Arnold, who was eager to represent Rick, needed to prove authentication. He told reporters they were putting these negatives “on trial.” He found a team of experts in art, forensics, handwriting, and even weather to explore the possibilities.

“It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career,” said art dealer David Streets. “This is going to show the world the evolution of his eye, of his talent, of his skill, his gift, but also his legacy.” The media remained skeptical of these expert opinions. Criticisms started getting personal.

The managing director of the Ansel Adams Trust, who is in charge of copyrighting anything to do with the famed photographer, told news channels that these so-called experts were “crooks” and “con men.” Nevertheless, Rick was determined to win.

Why would these negatives be left in an LA warehouse? Arnold’s photography expert, Patrick, suspected they were used for teaching purposes, namely “to show students how to not let their negatives be engulfed in a fire.” Still, experts were skeptical. To end the legal battles, Arnold had Rick sign an agreement.

Rick agreed to have a company called Media Partners Global sell the prints on his behalf, barring him from legal responsibility. They were eventually sued, but not before the company made an enormous profit. Once the company was forced to stop using the Ansel Adams name, Rick realized something was off.

News reports indicated the company made $1.8 million in profit, but Rick didn’t get his fair cut. As time went on, more officials denounced the authenticity of the negatives, claiming they actually belonged to a photographer named Earn Brooks. After looking into it, Rick made a troubling discovery.

The company selling his prints, Media Partners Global, was owned by none other than Arnold Peter! The attorney pocketed a majority of the $1.8 million in profits behind Rick’s back. He used confusing legal jargon to put loopholes in their agreement. Even the people he hired were scammers!

One of the appraisers, David Streets, turned out to be a convicted felon! He, along with the other “experts,” had been hired by Arnold to fake authentication of Rick’s negatives. Naturally, Rick hired new attorneys — ones he actually vetted — to sue Arnold. By that point, it was too late.

Swindled out of the chance to make millions, Rick is limited to selling the prints online only under the title of “The Lost Negatives.” With printing technology these days, however, business isn’t exactly booming. But his misery hasn’t deterred other antique hunters from looking for famous relics.