A previously unknown painting by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh that was picked up at a Minnesota garage sale by an unnamed antiques collector for less than $50 has recently been valued at $15-million.
The oil portrait, created in 1889, features a pipe-smoking, white-bearded fisherman repairing his net near an empty shoreline and was completed the same year van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in a psychiatric ward in France.
Experts analyzing the painting found distinctive van Gogh characteristics, including smile lines and a single red hair embedded in the paint, matching the artist’s own hair color. A team of more than a dozen conservators, scientists, and historians worked to verify its authenticity, tracing the red pigment used in the painting to a brand of paint from late 19th-century southern France.
Although experts believe the painting is a genuine van Gogh work, before it can be officially recognized it will need to be authenticated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. LMI Group, which purchased the painting from the antiques collector in 2019, continues to work toward confirming its legitimacy.
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