$30 Drawing Bought At Concord Estate Sale Worth Over $50 Million

CONCORD, MA — Two men in the Boston area unknowingly bought a 500-year-old masterpiece from an estate sale in Concord for only $30.

The piece, "The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a Grassy Bank" by German Renaissance printmaker Albrecht Dürer, is valued at over $50 million.

The piece came from the estate sale for Jean-Paul Carlihan, who had inherited the drawing from his grandfather, who had purchased it in Paris in 1919, the New York Post reported. Carlihan's family apparently thought it was a worthless replica and sold the piece off for $30.

An entrepreneur named Clifford Schorer was in the right place at the right time and was reported to have stopped into a Holliston bookshop where he was asked if he knew anything about art.

The Post said Schorer not only buys and sells distressed companies but also collects art and was once president of the Worcester Art Museum.

Schorer was surprised to have been asked about Dürer because so little of his work exists. Only a handful of his drawings have been put up for sale since 1978, when a watercolor went for around $1.3 million in London.

Once Schorer saw the picture in person, the Post reported, he offered a financial deal with the owner of the piece — who has remained anonymous — $100,000 just to find out if it is an original Dürer.

Once the examination was finished, it was determined that this piece was in fact real. The picker unknowingly purchased a 500-year-old drawing that could be worth $50 million at auction.

The Post reported Schorer, who is now controlling the interest in the piece, says it will eventually be sold off when the time is right.

For more on this read The New York Post.