A woman in Pennsylvania has bought what is believed to be a rare Renoir charcoal drawing, potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, for just $12 at a local art auction.
ABC news reported that Heidi Markow, who owns an antiques business in the state, found the item at a collector’s auction in Montgomery county in January.
The 17.5in by 16.5in charcoal drawing of a woman caught her eye and she told her husband to bid on it. “I didn’t know what it was, I just knew that I wanted it,” Markow told ABC. “This piece just stood out to me as something special.”
Her husband followed her instructions, later revealing to her that he had succeeded in snagging the drawing for just $12.
Later examination, however, tipped Markow off to the idea that she had snagged something very valuable. There was a faint signature, the frame was high quality and the type of paper used was also a clue that it might potentially be a Renoir. A stamp on the back also indicated it had been brought to the US by a high-end importer and sold to an art collector, Markow told the network.
Markow got in touch with the auction house Sotheby’s, which referred her to an appraiser who inspected the sketch and agreed with her suspicions, telling her: “Congratulations.”
The piece is now with the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, which will make a final judgment. If it is a Renoir, Markow told ABC, she plans to sell the work, which could be worth “six or seven figures”.
Markow is confident. “It’s absolutely beautiful, there’s so much detail in this that it deserves to be somewhere where it can be seen,” she told the station.
