A 16th-century drawing of one of the leading figures of the German Renaissance was valued at over $10 million after it was initially purchased at a garage sale for just $30 in 2017.
According to the Agnews Gallery – the London auction house in possession of the work -, Albrecht Durerwho died in 1528, is considered the greatest German artist of his time and one of the most important artists and intellectuals of the European Renaissance.
The drawing that has been rediscovered is titled “The Virgin and Child”. As Dürer’s career and legacy have been studied in depth since his death, it is extremely rare to find work unknown to him and Agnews said in a press release that this drawing has been “an object of significant interest since its rediscovery”.
Boston art collector Clifford Schorer, who is a consultant to the gallery, told CNN on Thursday that he found the rare artwork, believed to have been completed in 1503, by chance on his way to a party in Boston. Massachusetts in 2019.
He’d forgotten to bring a gift to the party and so he took a detour to a bookstore, which sold collectible volumes, on the way.
The bookseller told him that his friend had a drawing by Dürer and asked if he could take a look. Schorer agreed, but had little hope, as the last time an unknown “caliber” drawing by the artist was discovered was over 100 years ago.
The artwork was purchased at a garage sale at the home of an architect who received the piece as a gift from his art dealer father, Schorer said.
“Generally speaking, it’s an inverse relationship between how dramatic the statement is and how disappointing it is.” [Por exemplo] if someone tells me they have a Leonardo [da Vinci]I’m generally pretty confident that we’re going to see some images that aren’t impressive,” Schorer said.
But when he arrived to examine the work weeks later, he was surprised at its quality. Schorer told the owner, who he wishes to remain anonymous, “I think it’s the biggest fake I’ve ever seen or a masterpiece.”
An ‘extremely exciting’ discovery
“It was like [experimentar] a kind of electricity. When you’re in my world, you spend your life looking for unknown things that lead to fascinating avenues of research… And I could see that I was at the beginning of something extremely exciting,” Schorer said.
He wrote how he began a three-year journey to verify the artwork, which involved 17 international flights around the world to consult with experts.
It was all completed at a roundtable at the British Museum in London in December 2021, when the drawing was scrutinized by scholars in the field alongside other works on paper by Dürer, according to Schorer and Agnews.
The artwork has undergone a technical age analysis and bears the artist’s trademark, said Schorer, who believes it is worth “eight figures” and more than $10 million.
“It’s probably fair to say he’s one of the greatest graphic designers who ever lived – a pioneer in printmaking and drawing. He was a maestro in black and white, and his famous prints… inspired artists all over the world.”
“In terms of relative value, I think you should compare it to other old drawings,” says Schorer, like Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden, whose drawing sold for $15.6 million in 2018.
Source: CNN Brasil
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