Man Buys $50 Painting At Minnesota Garage Sale-Then Discovers It Could Be A Long Lost Vincent Van Gogh Masterpiece Worth Over $15 Million

A Minnesota man who paid $50 for what appeared to be an ordinary painting at a 2016 garage may have purchased a long-lost original work by Vincent Van Gogh that could be worth over $15 million. The painting depicts a simple man wearing a fur hat with a pipe in his mouth while standing in front of the ocean.

The Wall Street Journal reported it could be an original Van Gogh, titled "Elimar", that he painted during his year-long stint at a French psychiatric asylum. While a patient there, Van Gogh created some of his most famous works, including "The Starry Night," "Irises," and "Almonds." He may have created other works, like ‘Eliam," that remain unaccounted for.

Don't Miss:

It’s no wonder Jeff Bezos holds over $250 million in art — this alternative asset has outpaced the S&P 500 since 1995, delivering an average annual return of 11.4%. Here’s how everyday investors are getting started.
Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Last Chance to get 4,000 of its pre-IPO shares for just $0.26/share!

Today, Van Gogh's works are now world-renowned, but they were far less valuable while he was still alive. No one in Van Gogh's day imagined his paintings would be worth tens of millions of dollars. That's why finding an original Van Gogh at a garage sale is like making a pre-IPO investment in a company like Nvidia NVDA or Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). It could enrich the buyer beyond their wildest dreams.

Works by Van Gogh are featured in some of the world's most famous art museums and prized by collectors. Art has also become a popular alternative investment due to its appreciation potential. The popularity of artwork by masters like Van Gogh, and the astronomical price they fetch at auctions has created a cottage industry for forgers who try to pull the wool over collectors' eyes with phony works masquerading as the real thing.

Trending: Coinbase’s latest promo gets you up to $200 in crypto (Seriously!) — Here's everything you need to know to take advantage of this offer.

It has also created a job for authenticators, who rely on a combination of expertise, forensic analysis, and research to verify whether a piece is a genuine masterpiece or a forgery. One of those authenticators is New York-based LMI International, which got involved when the man who bought the painting called them in 2019 because the painting's style was reminiscent of Van Gogh's, The Journal reported.

LMI's founder, art lawyer Lawrence Shindell, and Maxwell Anderson, the firm's chief operating officer and a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, were intrigued enough to check it out. Anderson told The Journal he was "struck by what he saw," after viewing the painting in Manhattan. Almost immediately he noticed elements of the painting that were very similar to van Gogh's work, but not enough to be sure.

It was unsigned, but that's the case with many Van Gogh works, and Anderson still had his doubts. "Was I all in? No. but I was super intrigued," he told The Journal. LMI purchased the painting from the owner for an undisclosed fee. Then the company conducted a thorough analysis that included opinions from 20 different experts from all walks of the art world including museum curators, chemists, and even patent lawyers.

This analysis cost upwards of $30,000, but LMI was confident enough in its conclusions to claim "Elimar” was a real Van Gogh. They prepared a 450-page report to back up their findings and estimated Elimar's value to be at least $15 million. Despite their certainty, LMI will still have to clear one huge hurdle before selling Elimar as an authentic Van Gogh.

See Also: Wondering if your investments can get you to a $5,000,000 nest egg? Speak to a financial advisor today. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you up with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you.

That hurdle is the Van Gogh Museum. The museum didn't comment publicly to the Journal after LMI released its initial authentication report but it subsequently contacted LMI to deny the work's authenticity, according to LMI. LMI told the Journal that the museum claimed the painting's previous owner submitted it for authentication but that the museum declined to certify it as an original Van Gogh. The museum claims the painting's previous owner submitted the painting to them for authentication and subsequently refused to sanction the work as an authentic Van Gogh.

A Van Gogh Museum spokesperson told the Journal that it receives as many as 200 "authentication requests" for various works attributed to Van Gogh every year but added, "99% of which could not be attributed to Van Gogh in our opinion." Although LMI remains confident in its analysis, it will be hard pressed to sell the painting for $15 million without the Van Gogh Museum's seal of approval.

Further tests are planned, but in the meantime, LMI and "Elimar" are in limbo until the authenticity question is fully resolved. Art authenticator Richard Polsky told The Journal, "People love it when things fall through the cracks, and it would be wonderful if they found a Van Gogh—but they've got to pin everything down and get a scholar at the Van Gogh Museum to sign off on it."

Read Next: