Retired man discovers Jackson Pollock artwork in garage
When clearing out the garage, it’s natural to stumble across the odd forgotten treasure, but imagine one retiree’s shock when he found a lost artwork by famous expressionist Jackson Pollock in his Arizona home.
The man, a relative of New York City socialite and art collector Jenifer Gordon Cosgriff, discovered the “gouache” painting alongside a number of works from artists such as Jules Olitski, Cora Kelley Ward, David Porter, Hazel Guggenheim McKinley, John Charles Ford, Louis Siegriest, Isamu Noguchi, and Kenneth Noland. Noland’s piece sold in January for an impressive $145,000.
He hired appraisers to assess the value of the artworks, and was stunned to learn he was the owner of a genuine Pollock dating between 1945 and 1949.
“As we're going through the stack and we're down to this last piece [...] I was like, 'God, that looks like a Jackson Pollock'," auction house owner and appraiser Josh Levine told CNN. "We asked ourselves immediately what everyone else would, ‘Why is this in Arizona?'"
The painting will go up for auction on Tuesday, where it is expected to fetch close to $20 million. That’s quite the retirement fund!
Tell us in the comments below, have you ever found a valuable item while clearing out your home or the home of a loved one?