A stunning piece of art history has been unearthed in the most unexpected of places—a dusty garage sale in Minnesota. What was once a bargain-bin purchase for less than $50 is now believed to be a lost masterpiece by the legendary Vincent van Gogh, with an estimated value of a staggering $15 million.
According to a team of art experts in New York, the newly discovered oil portrait, depicting a fisherman smoking a pipe, was painted in 1889—the same year van Gogh created his iconic *The Starry Night* while residing in a psychiatric hospital in France.
The artwork’s journey from obscurity to potential world-famous status is nothing short of incredible. An anonymous antiques collector picked up the piece for pocket change, oblivious to its true value. But years later, a team of roughly 20 experts—curators, scientists, and historians—conducted an in-depth analysis and now believe the painting to be a genuine work of the Dutch master.
The Clues That Point to Van Gogh
Maxwell Anderson, a former curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was among the first to suspect the painting’s true origins. “I was struck by what I saw,” he told *The Wall Street Journal*. He noted distinctive van Gogh traits, including smile lines on the fisherman’s face and—most remarkably—a single red hair embedded in the paint, a hue matching van Gogh’s own.
The experts dug deeper, analyzing the pigments used in the painting. Their research revealed a red pigment that matched a brand of paint commonly used in southern France during the late 19th century—further evidence that the painting could be authentic.
The portrait features a white-bearded fisherman, working on his net beside a barren shoreline. In the lower right-hand corner, the word “Elimar” is scrawled—likely the fisherman’s name. Anderson believes the work embodies van Gogh’s frequent theme of redemption, often expressed in his letters and artwork. “Through Elimar, van Gogh creates a form of spiritual self-portrait, allowing viewers to see the painter as he wished to be remembered,” Anderson explained.
The Final Verdict Awaits
Despite the mounting evidence, the painting has yet to receive an official stamp of approval from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the ultimate authority in authenticating the artist’s work. Until then, its status remains in limbo.
The art research firm LMI Group, based in New York, purchased the painting from the original buyer in 2019 and has been leading the effort to confirm its authenticity. With specialists from fields ranging from chemistry to patent law weighing in, the team has built a compelling case that this once-forgotten piece is a true van Gogh.
For now, the world waits for the final word from Amsterdam. But if the experts are right, this Minnesota garage sale find could go down as one of the greatest accidental art discoveries in history—turning a $50 impulse buy into a multimillion-dollar treasure.