"Is This the Painting?" ... Shell Painting Bought for Just 40,000 Won Turns Out to Be a 350 Million-Won Masterpiece

[Financial News] A painting sold for $30 (about 40,000 won) at an estate sale in Michigan has been identified as a lost work by a master of American surrealism, drawing attention. The work, which resurfaced after 75 years, is expected to fetch up to $250,000 (about 350 million won) at an auction in New York on the first of next month.
According to multiple local media outlets, including the New York Post, on the 19th local time, the buyer discovered the painting at an estate sale held in Michigan last July. As the buyer was about to walk past the painting hanging in a hallway leading to a garage, they noticed the faint signature 'Abercrombie, '51' in the lower-left corner.
After seeing the signature and suspecting that the work might be by Chicago surrealist painter Gertrude Abercrombie (1909–1977), the buyer purchased it for $30. The buyer later visited the traveling Abercrombie retrospective 'The Whole World Is a Mystery' and found a past photograph in the exhibition materials showing the painting they had bought hanging in its original frame.
The work was Abercrombie's 1951 oil painting 'Alderman Merriam's Shells.' Its estimated value is $150,000–$250,000, roughly 5,000 to 8,000 times the purchase price. Susan Weininger, an art historian at Roosevelt University and an authority on Abercrombie's work, later examined the painting and confirmed that it was authentic.
Born in Austin, Texas, and active in Chicago, Abercrombie was a surrealist painter known for images of solitary women, cats, moons, towers from fairy tales, and hallways lined with colorful doors. She hosted a salon at her Hyde Park home where artists, writers, and jazz musicians gathered, earning her the nickname the 'Queen of Chicago.' She is also one of the painters whose market value has surged in recent years.
Her average auction price over the past year has exceeded $130,000. Last November, her 1950 painting 'Message for Mercy' sold for $1.02 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York, surpassing the previous record by 17%. A major retrospective that has toured the Carnegie Museum of Art, Colby College Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Norton Museum of Art since 2025 has further fueled interest in her work.
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