Important art and antique finds & stories from 35 years
How Research Turned an Unsigned Painting into a $240,000 Result
From Thrift Store to $400,000: The Discovery of an Anita Magsaysay-Ho Painting
The first painting she brought me was signed and sold well.
The second wasn’t signed.
And far more important.
What followed was a process of research, comparison, and attribution that changed everything.
From Thrift Store to $400,000: The Discovery of an Anita Magsaysay-Ho Painting
From Thrift Store to $400,000: The Discovery of an Anita Magsaysay-Ho Painting
About twenty years ago, someone submitted this painting through my website, asking if I could help identify it.
They had found it in a thrift store in the southwestern United States.
The painting appeared to be Fruit Vendors (1960) by the renowned Filipina artist Anita Magsaysay-Ho, one of the most important figures in modern Philippine art.
Because the painting had only been submitted through photographs, I explained that I could not formally authenticate it. However, I also told them that I had no immediate reason to believe it was incorrect and provided a substantial estimated value range based on comparable works.
The owner later consigned the painting to Sotheby's in Hong Kong, where it ultimately sold for just over $400,000.
Not bad for something discovered in a thrift store.
From a Small-Town Auction in Sterling, MA to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
When I was a boy in the 1970s, my father, who owned a small antique shop called The Oddity Shop in Worcester, MA, would take me to antique auctions at the Sportsman’s Club in Sterling, Massachusetts. At the time, I never imagined that the pottery of a local craftsman I first saw there would one day bring me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Years later, it did.
This is the story of a remarkable William J. Walley vase, a passionate collector, and the long journey from a small-town auction hall to one of the world’s great museums.
The $250,000 Newcomb Vase That Someone Used as a Doorstop
The John Singleton Copley Portrait That Needed the Right Home
A woman once emailed me a photo of a vase she had been using as a doorstop.
When I saw the image my heart stopped.
The vase turned out to be a monumental piece of Newcomb College Pottery that today could easily be worth $250,000.
Here is the story of how it traveled from a Midwestern house to a museum collection.
The John Singleton Copley Portrait That Needed the Right Home
The John Singleton Copley Portrait That Needed the Right Home
The John Singleton Copley Portrait That Needed the Right Home
A Copley portrait. An elderly client. And one question that had nothing to do with price.
When I was contacted by an estate attorney about a 1950s modern house in Concord, Massachusetts, I expected designer furnishings.
Instead, I found an 18th-century portrait lying face down on a bed.
She didn’t want the highest bidder.
She wanted the right home.
Here’s what happened:
I Found Gold in the Attic
The John Singleton Copley Portrait That Needed the Right Home
The John Singleton Copley Portrait That Needed the Right Home
Clearing out a 1920s house on a one-day deadline, everything was headed for the dumpster.
A sewing box on the porch and a trunk in the attic told a different story.
That decision turned into an $80,500 discovery—and a reminder of how easily history gets lost in the estate process.