Painting Bought at a Thrift Store for $4 Is Estimated to Sell for Up to $250,000 in September Auction

Ramona, frontispiece illustration by Newell Convers Wyeth
Bonhams Skinner

A woman bought a painting for $4 at a thrift store and it is now going up for auction and expected to fetch between $150,000 to $250,000.

A rare painting found and purchased for $4 in a thrift store will go up for auction in September for an estimated $250,000.

The painting is an original Newell Convers Wyeth that a woman found while shopping at a Savers thrift store in Manchester, New Hampshire, back in 2017, the Boston Globe reported

Now, six years later, Bonhams Skinner has listed that the painting will go up for auction on Sep.19. 

The piece is estimated to sell for anywhere between $150,000 to $250,000 at the auction. 

The woman, who asked Bonhams Skinner to remain anonymous, found the bargain deal in a stack of damaged posters and prints at the thrift store for $4 and joked that maybe it could be real, according to the Boston Globe. 

The painting served as art hanging in her bedroom before it spent time collecting dust in her closet until this past May when she posted pictures of it in a Facebook group, The Boston Globe reported.

Someone in the group recognized it and after experts familiar with Wyeth looked it over, it was revealed that the $4 trash was actually treasure, according to the Boston Globe.

The painting is believed to be one of four illustrations created for a 1939 edition of Helen Hunt Jackson’s "Ramona," Bonhams Skinner said. Only one other illustration from this set has been found.

Auction viewings will begin in September leading up to its auction date. 

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