A four-dollar thrift find of a mysterious illustration in a Manchester, New Hampshire Savers store could soon be sold for up to $250,000, writes Elaine Velie for HyperAllergic Magazine.  

In 2017, a woman found a dusty painting by acclaimed Chadds Ford artist N.C. Wyeth featured 1884 novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson.  

At first, she could not identify it or find a copy online, so she went to the Facebook group, “Things Found in Walls –And Other Hidden Findings” for answers. The members led her to the Brandywine Museum of Art, the residency of Wyeth.  

Conservator Lauren Lewis, who worked at the Wyeth Study Center at Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine drove out to verify the painting.  

She tells Hyperallergic that she was 99 percent sure of its authenticity. Kathleen Leeland, a specialist in American and European art also is certain the painting is original.  

She says the painting’s flat composition and utilitarian frame indicates that the artist wanted to protect it in transport. Wyeth also used Renaissance panels to mount his work, which is what was used for the illustration found in the thrift store.  

The lucky woman who found the painting will be selling it through auctioneer Bonhams Skimer on September 19.   

Read more about the long-lost N.C. Wyeth painting and its journey from the thrift store to the auction in Hyperallergic.   

Rare painting found at NH thrift shop could sell for $250,000