A $7 box of kitsch at a WVa auction nets a Virginia woman a real surprise.

[Stinky The Clown]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/renoir-found-at-wva-flea-market-likely-to-fetch-100000-at-auction/2012/09/11/2725710a-fc44-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html

She bought the box because she liked the frame. I like this quote from the story: "The woman’s fortuitous discovery fills in a mysterious gap in the history of the painting, which dates to 1879 and is titled “Paysage Bords de Seine,” or “Landscape on the Banks of the Seine.” That such a painting somehow wound up in a Shenandoah Valley flea market more than 130 years after its creation exposes an uncomfortable truth about high art: It’s hard to figure out what’s a Renoir and what’s junk."

[TwilightGardener]

1. Why doesn't this ever happen to me?

[bluesbassman]

2. I hear you. I bought a painting like that once and there was a summons behind the canvas...

with my name on it!

[chollybocker]

3. Well, it IS a nice frame.

But how did they predict the year of Renoir's death when they framed his painting? Da-da-dummm....

[SoCalDem]

4. Framed after his death..lost in the shuffle and forever-after presumed to be a copy?