In 2016, during a garage sale in Concord, near Boston, a bargain hunter stumbled upon a design bearing the famous monogram of Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. The sellers, who had inherited the work, assumed it was a modern reproduction and sold it to him for $30.
Related: 8 Sensational Flea Market Finds
Three years later, Clifford Schorer, an associate at Agnews Gallery in London, heard of the story during a stay in Boston. He immediately knew he had to see the design with his own eyes. “It was an incredible moment when I saw the Dürer,” Schorer told The Art Newspaper. “It was either the greatest forgery I have ever seen—or a masterpiece.”
The lucky owner who bought the design for just $30, and who wishes to remain anonymous, offered it to Schorer for $500. But the latter had something else in mind and entrusted the work to specialists for further examination. It turned out that the paper on which the drawing was made had the same watermark as two hundred other known Dürer sheets. The design and the monogram were also made with the same ink. In addition, Dürer experts at the Albertina in Vienna and the British Museum in London considered the drawing to be authentic and dated it to around 1503. It was probably used as a study for the 1506 watercolor Madonna auf der Rasenbank (Madonna on a Grassy Bank), kept at the Albertina.
Related: Top 10 Rediscovered Masterpieces
Until its discovery, the drawing had remained completely unknown, even among expert circles. Such discoveries concerning Dürer are very rare as his work has been studied very closely. The last surprise of this kind dates from the 1970s.
Until December 12, the drawing The Virgin and the Christ Child with a Flower on a grassy Bench) is on display as part of the Dürer and His Time exhibition at Agnews Gallery in St. James's Park, London. Although the gallery has yet to announce a price, estimates hover around $50 million, which would see Dürer dethrone his Italian colleague Raphael with the most expensive work on paper.
