Flea Market Find Turns Out to Be $75,000 Renoir

Tags: Auction House, Impressionism, Potomock Co., Sleeper

A 6 x 10 inch canvas purchased at a West Virginia flea market for $7 has been attributed to Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It will head to auction on September 29, where it could bring in $75,000 – 100,000.

Anne Norton Craner, a fine arts specialist for Potomack Co., appraised the work and pinned it as a circa 1879 depiction of the river Seine, somewhere near the towns of Bougival and Chatou. She also said it was once linked to a Baltimore heiress.

The flea market shopper, who wishes to remain anonymous, acquired the canvas after purchasing a box of knickknacks in either late 2010 or early 2011. While the painting wasn’t to her liking, she kept it around, storing it in the trunk of her car and in a shed with a broken window.

She finally contacted Potomack Co. after having seen their appraisers on the PBS television program “Antiques Roadshow.” Craner recalls their encounter on the day she brought in the canvas:

“When she walked in, the painting was in a white plastic bag, and I thought, ‘Here we go again. I’m going to have to be nice to this woman.’ But, you just never know. We really do try to take time and see everyone who comes in. Thank goodness we did.”

[via Washington Post]

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