Pic credit: Bonhams Skinner Every thrifter dreams of it: buying something for less than a pizza, discovering it’s actually valuable, and walking away with a fortune. For Tracy Donahue, a New Hampshire resident, the dream happened to be real.In 2017, she picked up a painting at a thrift store for $4. She hung it in her bedroom and forgot about it. Six years later, she’d find out it was a genuine N.C. Wyeth, one of the most celebrated American illustrators of the 20th century. By fall 2023, it was heading to auction with a $150,000 to $250,000 estimate. The winning bid came in at $191,000. Weeks passed. The sale was eventually cancelled. Donahue had already planned what she would do with the money. She and her family had hoped to use the proceeds to visit their son in Germany. But the buyer vanished. Just when Donahue was beginning to lose hope, a private collector showed up and bought the painting for more than $100,000.
The rare find at Savers
In 2017, Tracy Donahue walked into a Savers thrift store in Manchester, New Hampshire. She was hunting for picture frames when she spotted it: a dusty oil painting wedged among discarded posters at the store. The painting spoke to her. She was curious about the women. Who are they? Why are they so tense? And the only answer she had was: this painting is coming home. After all, it only cost $4. She paid the money and clunked it into the cart. She had no idea she was wheeling out an oil panel by N.C. Wyeth, who is known for works including ‘Treasure Island’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Robinson Crusoe’. The store, too, wasn’t aware of its value. “We look at all the donations we receive, and we place a value on them as best we can,” Savers manager Shaun Edson told the New York Times later. “We are not connoisseurs of paintings. We do our best to evaluate the pieces and value them appropriately.” And just like that, Donahue took home the long-lost work of the artist for less than the price of a drink.
She discovers what she really bought
Pic credit: Bonhams Skinner
Tracy Donahue hung the painting in her bedroom for years, and then eventually stored it in a closet, according to a report by CNN. She never would have known without spring cleaning. In May 2023, while tidying her home, she spotted the painting again and noticed something: a signature label on the back. She posted a photo to a Facebook group called ‘Things Found in Walls’, which is dedicated to “stories of things you have found in walls, dug up in your backyard, or in that abandoned house across the street from your grandma’s,” according to the group’s description. She asked if anyone knew anything about it. Within hours, her inbox filled with comments. This wasn’t just old. This was valuable.Lauren Lewis, an art conservator, saw the post. She had worked with paintings by three generations of the Wyeths: N.C. Wyeth, his son Andrew Wyeth and his grandson Jamie Wyeth. Lewis reached out. She drove three hours to Donahue’s home to examine the piece in person. After verification, Lewis was “99% certain it was authentic,” The Boston Globe reported. “While it certainly had some small scratches and it could use a surface clean, it was in remarkable condition considering none of us had any idea of its journey over the last 80 years.”That painting was a frontispiece illustration by N.C. Wyeth for the 1939 edition of Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona. It featured two women: a young maiden and her rigid foster mother. The work was one of only four that Wyeth had created for that edition, and most of them had been lost to time.
The auction and initial bidding
Bonhams Skinner announced it would go to auction in September 2023 with an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. Wyeth’s work, especially his book illustrations, has great value. His paintings have hung in major museums. His legacy has shaped American visual culture. So, the bidding began at $150,000. An Australian buyer placed the only bid, driving the price to $191,000 with the buyer’s premium. Donahue was thrilled. She had plans for that money. She and her family wanted to use the money to visit their son in Germany, a trip they had been putting off for years. But then nothing happened. The potential buyer went silent. Bonhams Skinner cancelled the sale and returned the painting. Donahue called it her ‘biggest disappointment ever’. At the time, she also told reporters that she was relieved they hadn’t spent money in advance, but the emotional letdown was real.A few months later, Aviva Lehmann, an auctioneer at Heritage Auctions, saw the news about the failed sale and immediately thought of a private collector she knew, someone serious enough and wealthy enough to care about owning a rare Wyeth. Lehmann called Donahue at 3 a.m. and fixed the sale, according to the Times. The painting was finally sold. The final price? Over $100,000. It’s certainly less than the failed auction, but more than what anyone expected from a $4 thrift-store find! More importantly, the money actually arrived. Donahue said goodbye to the painting, collected the money, called her son in Germany and informed him they were visiting.
