A small painting purchased for $30 at a Michigan estate sale recently sold for more than $1.35 million. The artwork was authenticated as Alderman Merriam's Shells, a 1951 piece by the celebrated surrealist Gertrude Abercrombie.
From a $30 Gamble to a $1.35 Million Record
The 8-by-11-inch oil painting was discovered in July by an anonymous buyer who specializes in mid-century furniture and record albums. According to Freeman's,the auction house that handled the sale, the artwork was tucked away in a dark hallway leading to a garage , largely ignored by other shoppers until the buyer spotted a faint signature reading "Abercrombie, '51."
While Freeman's originally valued the piece between $150,000 and $250,000,the final hammer price of $1.35 million far exceeded those estimates. This sale establishes a new auction record for Gertrude Abercrombie, surpassing a previous Sotheby's sale of the work Message for Mercy, which fetched $1.02 million.
The Kalamazoo Doctor and the 75-Year Disappearance
The provenance of Alderman Merriam's Shells reveals a non-traditional path from the studio to the auction block. Completed in 1951, the painting was featured in six of Gertrude Abercrombie's solo exhibitions and was originally priced between $50 and $150. However,rather than selling the work to a collector, Gertrude Abercrombie gifted the painting to a doctor in Kalamazoo, Michigan, as payment for medical services.
Following the doctor's death, the painting remained within the family estate for decades, effectively vanishing from public view for nearly 75 years.. This gap in ownership history is what led to the painting's eventual appearance at the low-cost estate sale in July.
A Milwaukee Art Museum Catalog and the Role of Susan Weininger
The transition from a $30 curiosity to a million-dollar asset required rigorous verification. As reported by Freeman's, the buyer visited a Gertrude Abercrombie exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where they discovered a 1952 news clipping in an exhibition catalog. This clipping contained a photograph of the painting alongside the actual seashells it depicts, providing the first concrete link to the artist's known body of work.
To finalize the authentication, Susan Weininger,an art history professor at Roosevelt University and a recognized Gertrude Abercrombie expert, confirmed the work was genuine and still housed in its original frame. The painting then underwent a restoration process by Julian Baumgartner, who removed grime and clouded varnish to restore the "radiant" quality of the original oil colors.
The 'Bohemian Queen' of Chicago's Hyde Park
Gertrude Abercrombie, who died in 1977, was a largely self-taught artist known as the "Bohemian Queen" of American art. She was famous for her dream-like compositions and for hosting influential salons in Chicago's Hyde Park, where jazz legends such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie performed. Her work frequently featured recurring motifs like owls, cats, and the seashells seen in Alderman Merriam's Shells.
In the context of Abercrombie's wider portfolio, shells often served as talismans of friendship, typically gifted to those closest to her.. This personal symbolism is a hallmark of her style, where objects represented her own identity and experiences rather than abstract concepts, a philosophy she summarized by stating, "I always paint myself."
The Identity of the Anonymous Record Hunter
Despite the massive financial windfall, the identity of the buyer remains undisclosed. The auctioneer describes the individual only as a longtime hunter of mid-century collectibles, leaving open the question of whether this buyer intends to keep the work in a private collection or flip it for further profit.
The discovery also raises questions about how many other Gertrude Abercrombie works may still be hiding in private residences. Zachary Wirsum, senior vice president at Freeman's, noted that the artist's works occasionally crop up at estate sales, suggesting that the market for these surrealist pieces may still be under-explored in the American Midwest.
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