Garage Sale Shopper Pays $30 for Seashell Painting—Then Finds It Could Fetch Up to $250,000

A Michigan estate-sale shopper paid just $30 for a small seashell painting. After spotting a signature linking it to surrealist artist Gertrude Abercrombie, the buyer discovered the authenticated 1951 work carries an auction estimate of $150,000 to $250,000.

The collector, who regularly searched estate sales for record albums and mid-century furniture, arrived late to a Michigan sale in July, when most of the items had already been picked over. However, a dark corner of a hallway leading to the garage still held an unexpected find: a small slate-grey painting showing scattered seashells.

In the lower-left corner, the shopper noticed a tiny inscription: 'Abercrombie, '51.' That was enough to spark a closer look.

A $30 Find Raises Questions

The buyer wondered whether the name belonged to Gertrude Abercrombie, the Chicago artist whose surreal paintings often combined ordinary objects with mysterious, dreamlike settings. The collector later visited the Milwaukee Art Museum's Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery exhibition.

While browsing the exhibition catalogue, they spotted an archival photograph of what appeared to be the same 8-by-11-inch painting. The image had been published in a 1952 Chicago Tribune review of Abercrombie's work. That discovery provided an important lead. The collector then contacted Susan Weininger, an art historian and Abercrombie scholar at Roosevelt University.

Weininger confirmed the painting was an authentic Abercrombie work. Titled Alderman Merriam's Shells, it was painted in 1951 and has since been consigned to Freeman's Post-War & Contemporary Art auction in New York.

From $30 to a Six-Figure Estimate

Freeman's estimates the painting will fetch between $150,000 and $250,000 at auction. The figure is a striking contrast to the $30 paid at the estate sale, although the estimate is not a guaranteed sale price and the final result will depend on bidding.

The oil-on-masonite work measures just 8 by 11 inches and depicts nine seashells arranged against a dark background, including one shell suspended by a thread. The shells belonged to Robert Merriam, who served as Chicago alderman of the Fifth Ward from 1947 to 1955, a district that included Hyde Park, where Abercrombie lived.

A 75-Year-Old Trail

According to Abercrombie's records, she gave the painting to Dr. John T. Reynolds of Kalamazoo, Michigan, in early 1952 in exchange for medical services. The artwork remained with the Reynolds family for roughly 75 years before being offered at the Michigan estate sale where the shopper found it. Its reappearance has now brought a relatively obscure work from Abercrombie's career back into the spotlight.

'Little Did I Know'

'This was painted during her most productive period, when realism was just as important to Gertrude as the magical,' Zachary Wirsum, senior vice president and head of the Post-War and Contemporary Art department at Freeman's told ArtNet. He said the discovery was particularly fitting given how recently he had discussed the possibility of finding Abercrombie works at estate sales.

'I had told visitors on an exhibition tour that Abercrombie paintings occasionally still surface at estate sales,' Wirsum said. 'Little did I know that one of those "once in a while's" would occur less than a month later.'

Abercrombie died in 1977 at age 68, but her work has gained renewed attention through exhibitions and scholarship. Thomas Busciglio-Ritter, curator of American art at the Milwaukee Art Museum, told Smithsonian Magazine that viewers are drawn to the 'weirdness' of her art and its deeply personal quality. Now, after decades in private hands, Alderman Merriam's Shells is going under the hammer at Freeman's in New York today, 1 October, after spending years unnoticed and was purchased for just $30.