Heidi Markow, owner of Easton’s Salvage Goods Antiques, may have stumbled upon the find of a lifetime when she bought what could be an original 19th-century Renoir painting at a Montgomery County auction for just $12, writes Walter Perez for 6abc.
Markow was drawn to the artwork from the moment she saw it.
“I didn’t pick it up,” she said. “I didn’t turn it around. I basically looked at it and I thought, ‘I just want that piece.’”
A certified art appraiser, Markow soon realized that the drawing of a nude woman was not an ordinary work. She recognised antique framing, a faint signature, and a stamp on the back from when it was imported to the United States for a prominent collector.
She concluded the drawing was by famed French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. After confirming her findings with a fellow art appraiser, she received an invitation for examination from the prestigious Wildenstein Plattner Institute. If the institute confirms her findings, the drawing will be authenticated as an original Renoir.
Marcow has yet to decide what to do with the drawing if that happens.
How the drawing ended up at a Montgomery County auction remains a mystery.
Read more about the artwork at 6abc.
