An antique dealer from England might have stumbled across millions of dollars after he purchased what he thought was a fake Picasso painting. Turns out, it may not be a fake after all!
Philip Stapleton was doing a bit of thrift shopping when he came across the painting and fell in love with it even though he thought it was a fake. He paid $300 for it and something told him he should get the painting looked at by experts. Good thing he did.
Stapleton took it to Brighton and Hove Auction House, where he received the potentially good news about the painting. It seems that the signature on the painting could, in fact, be that of Picasso. The thinking was that Picasso likely gave the portrait to a friend, Roland Penrose. After studying the painting intently and taking it out of the frame, they found a message with a “very clear” signature from Picasso, but one from earlier in his life.
More needs to be done to authenticate but if it is a real Picasso it's likely that the painting will be sold for at least $950,000 but paintings from Picasso in the past have sold for more than $130 million.
Have you ever bought something at a secondhand store that turned out to be worth a lot of money??
[NY Post]