Two Brothers Find $15m Painting in Wall
Location: Arlington, Vermont
Year Discovered: 2006
Est. Value: $15.4 million*
Two brothers were conducting a postmortem excavation in their father’s home when they discovered something unexpected buried within the walls. It was a genuine Norman Rockwell piece. But this Rockwell matched the one only a few inches away on the wall. The brothers’ father, it turned out, was hiding the costly original from his ex-wife during a divorce. He hid the actual Rockwell in the wall, replacing it with a convincing replica. It hung there for years until the father died. This painting, titled “Breaking Home Ties,” later sold for $15.4 million at a Sotheby’s auction.
Two Brothers Find $15m Painting In Wall
Missing Original Mark Twain Script Found in a Trunk
Location: Hollywood, California
Year Discovered: 1991
Est. Value: $1.5 million*
This priceless literary relic had been missing for nearly a century until being recovered in an attic trunk in 1991. Famous author Mark Twain handwrote the 665-page document. This version of Huckleberry Finn strayed significantly from the original source text, upending our assumptions about modern literature. The Mark Twain Project at USC stated that they “believed” the book would never be discovered because Twain had sent it to Buffalo, New York, where it vanished. The trunk’s owner was the granddaughter of one of Mark Twain’s close friends, and she promptly sent it to Sotheby’s for certification.
Missing Original Mark Twain Script Found In A Trunk
