Rare Childhood Painting Became A Stunning Hidden Treasure | Antiques Roadshow

Ajouté : 2026-05-04

[00:00:01]Well, this is a painting by Mr. A.E.

[00:00:03]Bakus. He was a South Florida artist.

[00:00:06]And when I was uh growing up in Coral Gables, Florida, he would stop by our house in an old car and pull a painting out of the trunk and knock on our door and try to sell it to my father. And sometimes he'd buy it and sometimes he wouldn't. And he would also tell Mr. Bakus what he would like in a painting for a future painting. I was very young at the time. He just seemed like an older man when he came to our house. He was just in love with his paintings.

[00:00:31]When my dad passed away, I chose to get this painting because it was different than other paintings I'd seen from Mr. Bakus.

[00:00:37]>> It may look like a scene from the Everglades, but it's actually a woman picking peas. The painting was created by Albert Bakus, also known as Beanie Bakus, who is widely regarded as the best known 20th century painter of the Florida landscape. For the most part, Bakus was self-taught, although he did take some summer art classes. This particular painting becomes even more interesting when you consider a personal event in his life. In 1955, his wife whom he had been married to for only 5 years passed away. The loss deeply affected him and he spent some time in Jamaica afterward. While there, he began exploring new subjects. This painting is titled Shelling Gongo Peas with the title and the date 1966 written on the back. The solitary figure sitting quietly evokes a sense of stillness and reflection, perhaps showing the loneliness he experienced during that period. Today, his paintings, like those of the Florida Highwaymen, have become quite popular.

[00:01:36]>> An auction estimate on this painting today, I would say, should be 15,000 to 25,000.

[00:01:43]>> That's that's quite a lot. That's very nice. Just looking at it in this light is beautiful and and brings back a lot of memories of my childhood and my father wanting these paintings. I love it very much.

[00:01:56]>> Just a minute.

[00:01:58]>> An insurance value for this painting I would put at 35,000.

[00:02:02]>> Okay. Thank you very much.

[00:02:06]>> This painting was done for my dad, Harold Olsen. He played football with Ernie Barnes um in the 60s. They played for the Denver Broncos. This painting is quite unusual because the artist Ernie Barnes is best known for very different subjects. Barnes became famous for his energetic scenes of football players, basketball players, and lively party gatherings. Here, however, we're looking at a landscape. Before fully dedicating himself to art, he also played professional football as an offensive lineman for the Denver Broncos. He ultimately made more money selling his artwork than he did playing football.

[00:02:42]Turning back to the painting itself, the scene appears to show a landscape, probably in the fall based on the colors. It's an oil on board measuring 6 ft by 2 ft, and it's signed simply Ernie. Typically, he signed his work Ernie Barnes, but this appears to be an early piece. It was painted in the 1960s and likely took about a month to complete. There's also a photograph of the owner as a child in 1964 with the painting visible in the background which is quite unusual and really adds to its significance. It's unusual so that it's hard to come up with a comparable but I think I would put a an auction estimate on this of anywhere between $85 and $95,000.

[00:03:27]>> Wow. Okay.

[00:03:35]This painting was a painting that my grandfather was given. He was given by Maynard Dixon himself.

[00:03:42]Sometimes kindness pays in surprisingly big ways. This particular painting was actually a token of appreciation from Maynard Dixon to someone who helped rescue him from a muddy bog. At the time, Dixon traveled frequently, spending much of his time painting in different parts of California. Now, this is a wonderful painting, and it's especially rare because the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed much of his earlier work. Dixon began as a self-taught illustrator before eventually discovering Arizona and the broader West. He quickly fell in love with the Southwest and with Native American culture, and he produced many paintings of Native Americans. In addition, the work is an oil on canvas measuring 12 by 16 in, which is a fairly standard size. Artists often carried boards like these with them while traveling. It's a fine example of his later style, and he even inscribed his name and address on the back. It also retains its original frame, which certainly helps the value.

[00:04:43]>> And they took a photo of it. They wanted to catalog it. They told me at the time it that it should be worth from 10 to $15,000.

[00:04:52]>> The insurance value for this painting would be $50,000.

[00:04:57]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:05:00]>> Well, I hope we never have to collect on that insurance policy. But I Yeah, I just I like it because of the history.

[00:05:08]My father was really attached to this painting and uh but I'm blown away.

[00:05:14]Dixon's auction record is uh over $2 million.

[00:05:18]>> Wow. Oh my.

[00:05:23]>> I went to a farm auction about five or six years ago about 30 mi west of Minneapolis here. They were in a box two together and I bid on them and I started the bidding at a dollar and somebody bid three or four. Anyway, I wound up getting them for $5. The first painting here is by an artist named Spencer, whose signature appears in the lower left. It's a work from the latter half of the 20th century. The second painting, however, is signed in the lower right by Victor Higgins, who was born in 1884 on a farm in Shelbyville, Indiana, and he died in 1949.

[00:06:00]His early work was more impressionistic, but by the time this painting was created, his style had shifted toward modernism. The harder edges and defined forms you see here reflect that modernist influence. Now, the exact date of the painting isn't known, but it's painted on Masonite, a material that didn't come into use until after 1926, suggesting it was made sometime after that. It's an oil painting, though the surface has developed a yellow cast from accumulated dirt. There's a lighter blue along the edge, indicating the sky would be much brighter if cleaned. The frame appears to be original and painted rather than finished in gold leaf.

[00:06:41]Cleaning would likely improve its value.

[00:06:43]>> If this were for sale in an art gallery in Santa Fe, for example, which is where he probably would sell best, I think it would sell in the range of $75,000.

[00:06:58]>> You blew me away. $75,000?

[00:07:02]>> Yes.

[00:07:03]>> I don't believe it. Well, if it were cleaned, it could even be up closer to 100 depending on how it cleaned up.

[00:07:09]>> Wow.

[00:07:10]>> That's quite a find.

[00:07:11]>> $75,000.

[00:07:13]>> It's It's wonderful.

[00:07:14]>> Unbelievable.

[00:07:29]>> It was a present from my father. I inherited from him when he passed away.

[00:07:34]I always liked Lionel Feininger. I had a book about him and uh I have seen pictures in museums of him and I was thrilled when I inherited the painting.

[00:07:45]I came to this country long time ago for one year and my dad visited me and we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and there was this picture of Lionel Feinger. He did a lot of churches and I liked it and he bought a poster and framed it for me.

[00:08:03]That was my first picture I ever owned.

[00:08:05]>> Lionol Feinger created works that blend a touch of realism with a great deal of fantasy and this piece is a clear example of that approach. The picture is signed in the lower left and also dated.

[00:08:17]The inscription translates to Thursday the 10th day of February 1921.

[00:08:23]The work itself is a watercolor. On the back, the title appears in German as Silburn Stern, which means silver stars.

[00:08:31]Visually, the stars are simplified into cross-like almost X-shaped forms. He often simplified his subjects into basic shapes or planes, then combined them with strong linear definition.

[00:08:44]Historically, Feinger was born in New York in 1871 to parents who were both musicians. They expected him to pursue music, but instead he chose art and went on to study in Paris and Germany. When the Nazis took over Germany, he returned to the United States. It's a wonderful work, and the colors are especially striking.

[00:09:04]>> I think if this were offered in a retail gallery, it might sell for as much as $75,000.

[00:09:08]>> You must be kidding.

[00:09:09]>> No.

[00:09:10]>> Oh my god.

[00:09:13]>> It's a lovely example.

[00:09:14]>> Oh my god. I had no idea.

[00:09:20]I thought maybe 5,000 8,000 something like that. Thank you so much.

[00:09:35]This painting was painted by Chut when he was a student at Ever Junior College.

[00:09:42]He was just a young man. My husband was a drama professor and Chuck approached him saying that, "Doc, I need $8. I'm going to be evicted from my apartment tonight." And so my husband said, "But you have $8 worth of paint on it." And he said, "But I've got to have $8, doc." So boy gave him $8.

[00:10:08]And in 1960, that was $3 was quite a bit for us.

[00:10:14]and brought it home. It's been hanging in my French room ever since.

[00:10:20]>> Paintings like this created before an artist became widely known have a distinct feel. Chuck Close produced this work while he was still in junior college. At the time he was very much under the influence of the abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothkco and in this case William Duning. Close even described the piece as man walking and explained, "This is the way I feel in the spring of the year when I'm out stepping in the bright sunshine and the flowers and the spring of the year." Obviously, this is very different from what he later became famous for. Close emerged as a leading figure in the photo realist and realist movements celebrated for his enormous portrait heads. It's likely he felt he couldn't compete as an abstract expressionist, so he shifted direction.

[00:11:07]Yet looking at this work, you can see he certainly had the talent for it. Prefame paintings like this are often highly sought after and can command significant attention.

[00:11:17]>> Work of a young man, but still, I think, a very impressive piece. Have you ever given any thought to what it may be worth?

[00:11:23]>> I would expect it to have some value, but what it is, I really wouldn't I couldn't fathom a guess. It must be in the thousands.

[00:11:33]>> I would say it was in the thousands.

[00:11:34]Would you be surprised if I said $100 to $150,000?

[00:11:37]>> How much >> at auction? $100 to $150,000.

[00:11:40]>> Oh wow. That that is a that is a great deal. It will make my son very happy because it's in the wheel for him.

[00:11:48]>> This is an interesting painting in terms of his development. And who knows, it may even make a little bit more. And not a bad return on the $8 that saved him from being thrown out of his dig.

[00:11:57]>> My daughter has been saying all day. She says, "And they'll tell you that it that it's worth $8.

[00:12:17]I have a number of Andrew W signed prints, but I've always wanted to have an original painting. And I started looking in earnest when I saved enough money in 1985. And I had a dealer reach me and he said that he had this painting. It's called the Traml.

[00:12:35]>> The Traml painting here actually has another work on the back which makes it particularly interesting. Andrew Wyth was a major figure in American painting.

[00:12:44]Born in 1917 in Chad's Ford, he worked primarily in Pennsylvania and Maine and remained a committed realist throughout his life even as abstract expressionism swept the art world. Notably, this work is signed Andrew Wyth in the lower left and dates from 1985.

[00:13:02]It demonstrates his mastery of watercolor. Wyth cleverly uses unpainted areas of the white paper as part of the composition, capturing reflections in the window and the texture of leather on a boot. His attention to different textures and his love of old objects are evident throughout. Now the traml itself, traditionally a hanger for cooking pots over a fire, has been repurposed here as a hat rack. On the reverse is a sketch, adding another layer of interest. The fact that Wyth framed the work himself and that he has since passed further enhances its significance and value.

[00:13:39]>> This is a very nice example of his work and I think you would be fine at ensuring the work at $450,000.

[00:13:47]Wow, that is a nice price.

[00:13:50]>> Is that a real wow?

[00:13:52]>> That's a real wow. And I might throw in, are you kidding? Which is what people often times say. But it's nice to know that that's what's happened to that painting.

[00:14:14]I brought a picture that has been in my family as long as I can remember. I saw it hanging on the wall as I was growing up. Thought it was rather ugly, big and after my mother passed away, I wrapped it up and put it underneath my bed and that's where it's been. Arthur Mole and John Thomas were commercial photographers based in Chicago. They gained fame during the first world war for their living photographs which required thousands of troops to create.

[00:14:42]They crafted images of the Statue of Liberty, Woodro Wilson's head, eagles, and many other designs. This particular image is among their most celebrated works. Notably, the photograph is accompanied by a wonderful [ __ ] art frame made of wood. The image depicts the Philadelphia Liberty Bell complete with its famous crack and is copyrighted 1918. To orchestrate these massive compositions, Mole would position himself in an elevated spot, shouting directions to the troops below to get everything perfectly arranged for the shot. This photograph was taken at Camp Dicks in New Jersey. Also, the print itself is in excellent condition. The frame was made in 1921 by William Bergstrom, who appears to have been a skilled hired hand. He crafted the frame with remarkable care, perfectly complimenting the photograph. That level of craftsmanship adds significantly to the work's value.

[00:15:39]>> You've got two great things. To ensure this piece, I would put maybe $8,000 on it. Something like that.

[00:15:44]>> Wonderful.

[00:15:47]>> It was purchased by my grandfather at an auction. Almost everyone knows the story of Abraham Sarah and her slave girl, so it's not surprising that there are many artistic depictions of it. This painting is by an Italian artist from the 1800s.

[00:16:02]Visually, the work is an oil on canvas painted around 1860 to 1861.

[00:16:08]In the background, outside the tent, Abraham and Sarah watch over Hagar as she departs with a jug of water and a loaf of bread. Biblical scenes like this were very popular in part because of Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt and the English painters traveling through the Holy Land capturing ruins and landscapes that fueled interest in these stories.

[00:16:30]The artist Enrico Fanfani was likely trained in Florence. As noted on the back, he received a Medal of Honor in 1861.

[00:16:39]The painting has a small hole and shows grime and varnish discoloration accumulated over the years, but cleaning and a simple repair will restore it. The frame is a reproduction from around 1920 with a faux gold patina which further enhances its appeal.

[00:16:56]>> If this were to go to auction in its present condition, I think it probably would sell for 8 to 12,000.

[00:17:01]>> Amazing.

[00:17:05]When my father died in the 1990s, it came to us.

[00:17:10]>> Gorgi Lapchin was born in Moscow in 1885.

[00:17:14]In the early 1900s, he studied at the Strogenov School before moving to Paris where he trained with Corman and JF Leita.

[00:17:22]Returning to Moscow, he participated in the group exhibition of independence in 1910 and went on to become a founder and regular participant of the free art movement from 1911 to 1917.

[00:17:35]Between 1918 and 1922, his works appeared in numerous exhibitions, including the first and second shows of professional union painters in Moscow.

[00:17:46]1918, the second national exhibition of paintings. 1919 the 47th exhibition TPHV 1922 and the first Russian art exhibition in Berlin 1922 in 1924 he moved back to Paris now this particular painting depicts a busy street scene like executed in oil on canvas it demonstrates Lapsheen's remarkable mastery of color the frame likely gilded enhances the work's appeal and his signature at the bottom provides strong provenence further adding to its value.

[00:18:21]>> I would value it at between 20 and $40,000.

[00:18:24]>> Not bad.

[00:18:32]>> Well, it's something that my wife inherited from her sister and her husband.

[00:18:36]>> There's something particularly interesting about the artist behind this painting. Robert Atkinson Fox, whose signature R. Atkinson Fox appears on the lower left, was born in Canada in 1860 and lived until 1935.

[00:18:50]Despite his Canadian birth, he is generally considered a Philadelphia artist. During his lifetime, Fox was remarkably prolific, reportedly producing over a thousand works. His output was also quite varied. He painted historical subjects, scenes with sheep, and in many ways he became best known as a painter of cows. This particular painting depicting a hunter with ducks is a fine example of his original oil work. Now it is executed on canvas which appears to have been laid down onto a panel, though the back is sealed. Over the years, the glass covering has done an excellent job of preserving the painting. Fox's prolific career and the quality of his work make his paintings particularly desirable and valuable to collectors.

[00:19:36]>> And yet in terms of his output when it comes to the secondary market at auction, his works sell at auction, but not with great great frequency relative to his output. 15 to $20,000 is where I would see it in a good retail store.

[00:19:51]>> Well, thank you very much.

[00:20:00]My wife's aunt passed away in 2019 and she was a collector of all kinds of art, but particularly African-American artists and my wife inherited a number of pieces from her and that's how we got this.

[00:20:13]>> Ed Clark was a highly important African-American artist who reached significant prominence later in his career. Early on, while studying at the Art Institute in Chicago, he worked as a figurative painter. Later, after moving to Paris, he synthesized European and American postwar abstraction to develop a signature style of his own. Upon returning to the United States, he emerged on the New York art scene. His paintings and works on paper have been widely collected, appearing in institutions such as MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture, and the Studio Museum of Harlem. Notably, this particular work is on paper executed in pigment. On the back is a handwritten inscription noting it was completed in April 1976 in Merida Yucatan, Mexico at the Hotel American. The bands of color characteristic of Clark's signature style are evident here as they are across both his canvas and paperworks.

[00:21:15]Since his passing, his works have become highly valuable.

[00:21:18]>> I would give a conservative estimate of between 50,000 and $65,000 in a gallery.

[00:21:26]>> Wow. Thank you.

[00:21:28]>> You have a really beautiful piece here by Clark and it's quite a gem.

[00:21:33]>> Yes, we like it very much.

[00:21:37]>> My husband and I love this painting. We love the artist and we loved everything about the color in it.

[00:21:44]>> How long ago did you acquire the painting?

[00:21:46]>> It would have been about 40 years ago in the 80s from a gallery in Denver.

[00:21:52]Charles Partridge Adams had his first exhibition in Denver in 1886 and established his first studio there in 1893.

[00:22:01]Early on, he worked at a bookstore called Chain and Hardy. Later, he spent his summers in Estes Park painting the landscapes there. He discovered that watercolor paintings tended to sell more quickly because they were less expensive, which helped him develop his business. Around 1920, he moved to Los Angeles, but Colorado scenes didn't sell as well in California, so he began painting coastal subjects while still creating Colorado landscapes from memory to send back for sale. He was quite entrepreneurial in that approach.

[00:22:33]Notably, this painting is a strong example of his work, likely dating from 1900 to 1920.

[00:22:40]Executed in oil on canvas, the colors are vibrant and the surface beautifully shows the texture of the paint and the artist's brush work. Its quality and charm make it highly appealing to collectors.

[00:22:52]>> If we were to offer this in a retail gallery now, the asking price might be around 50,000.

[00:23:00]>> Well, that's always encouraging and nice to hear, but I love having it in my own house. I love showing something as beautiful as that. And cuz I adore Colorado.

[00:23:14]It is a piece of art that I inherited from my stepmother who lived in Washington DC in the 1970s. She was a lawyer with the federal government. She loved art and so she educated herself.

[00:23:27]She went to galleries, museums, and whenever she and my dad had a little extra money, they would buy a piece of art and bring it into their home. Sam Gilliam was the first African-American artist to exhibit at the Venice Bonale in 1972.

[00:23:42]He was originally associated with the Washington Color School, a group of abstract painters who began exhibiting together in Washington in the 1960s.

[00:23:51]His major innovation was creating large canvases that were stained, twisted, and folded. He didn't frame them, instead draping or hanging them in different configurations.

[00:24:01]a groundbreaking way to experience a painting which he began exploring in the late 1960s.

[00:24:07]Now, this piece dates to 1974 and is marked June 5, either noting the completion date or the inspiration. It's painted on polyropylene, the same material used for sales, chosen for how it absorbs paint. Lighter areas are thinly applied, while heavier sections build texture and depth. The surface appears to have been folded, reflecting Gileiam's technique of creasing and manipulating fabric to achieve the sense of movement and dimensionality found in his draped works. Gileiam's innovations drew considerable attention, making this a compelling addition to any collection.

[00:24:44]>> These early works are very desirable. In a retail situation, it would be priced at between $125 and $150,000.

[00:24:54]>> Oh my goodness.

[00:24:56]I'm shocked.

[00:24:58]I'm shocked.

[00:24:59]>> Yeah. It's a It's a really wonderful piece and a great great legacy for your family.

[00:25:05]>> Yeah. Yeah. Well, we hope to say we hope to keep it in the family for many years, but that's that's amazing.

[00:25:13]>> I would ensure it for $150,000.

[00:25:16]>> Wow.

[00:25:20]I have a print by Andy Warhol. That was a birthday present to my greatuncle Clint. My uncle is from Abalene, Texas.

[00:25:29]In 1951 or so, he went out to New York City um cuz he was an artist and he went out there to do window treatments for places at like Bonwit Teller. And while he was doing that, he met Andy Warhol.

[00:25:43]Clint Hamilton moved to New York to work as an artist creating window displays for stores like Bonwit Teller. During that time, he met Andy Warhol and the two became close friends. Warhol, born in Pittsburgh, graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Melon University in 1949.

[00:26:04]In fact, Clint may have even given him his first job. That friendship led to this piece and one can even see the inscription in the corner. Happy birthday, Clint. Now, for years, it was believed to be a print, but it's actually an original work. The shoe design is rendered in pen and ink with gold leaf, then enhanced with collage and embossed foil. Warhol produced many of these playful shoe works in the mid 1950s, including elaborate examples for Zia Gabbor and even a swashbuckler style boot for Elvis Presley with subtle erotic undertones. This piece dates to around 1955 to 1956 and his works from this period remain highly valuable.

[00:26:46]>> If this work in a gallery, I think it would sell somewhere in the neighborhood of $125,000.

[00:26:54]>> Oh my god.

[00:26:56]Oh my god.

[00:26:59]Wow. That's incredible. Oh my god.

[00:27:06]Oh my god. Wow.

[00:27:08]>> For insurance purposes, I would um feel that it should be appraised at 150,000.

[00:27:13]>> Oh my god. Okay.

[00:27:16]Okay.

[00:27:17]>> The one that was dedicated to Julie Andrews was at auction in 2015. It actually sold for a million1.

[00:27:23]>> Oh my god.

[00:27:26]I was at an estate sale and I was loaded down with items standing in line to pay for them and then I saw this out of the corner of my eye hanging on the wall and I said, "Forget this stuff." And I grabbed it off the wall and paid for it.

[00:27:41]It was like for $45.

[00:27:43]>> Sometimes when people take a quick glance at something during a sale, they just know getting it is the best decision. And this particular painting is a peak example of that. The artist is Harvey Joiner, who was born in 1852 in Charles Town, Indiana, just north of the Ohio River, and spent most of his career in Louisville. His work focuses heavily on scenes from Cherokee Park, often depicting quiet wooded interiors. These paintings are admired for their detail and are often described as small jewel-like works. Now, this example appears to be a summer scene, which collectors especially like, and it is unmistakably set in Cherokee Park. The signature is in the lower right, faint and in green, blending into the background, which is a typical detail for Joiner. Collectors in Kentucky hold their regional artists in very high regard, and Harvey Joiner stands among the most respected names.

[00:28:36]>> At auction, a reasonable conservative estimate would be in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

[00:28:43]>> Nice.

[00:28:46]Pretty good for $45.

[00:28:56]Well, my parents bought it. I'm from Chicago, from the south side of Chicago.

[00:29:00]My parents purchased it at the High Park Art Fair 1963. Could have been 64, but I do think it was 63. And it was hanging on their walls for my entire childhood.

[00:29:10]And then when they both passed away, it came down to us. Wadsworth Gerald returned to watercolor in 2003 after not using it since the 1960s. This painting shows his delicate and sensitive use of watercolor. In fact, he himself even called it a very fine work. That endorsement is especially important as the painting itself is unsigned. Now, Wodsworth Gerald was born in 1929 in Georgia. He later moved to Chicago and had some instruction at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was also a co-founder of Afreco which was founded in Chicago in 1968.

[00:29:48]Afreco actually stands for African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. More importantly, the piece was created in the 1960s. It depicts Charlie Parker on saxophone and Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet. Charlie Parker, often called Bird, was an alto saxophonyist who helped create Bbop, a style that moved jazz away from dance music. And Dizzy Gillespie then helped to push Bbop forward and introduced Afrouban rhythms into jazz. Since Gerald is still alive, his works may not be very valuable, but they still fetch a nice buck.

[00:30:24]>> But a painting like this, I think I would put an insurance value of $75,000.

[00:30:28]>> Oh my god.

[00:30:30]$75,000.

[00:30:32]>> Yes.

[00:30:33]>> Okay. Wonderful. It is. It's wonderful.

[00:30:35]It's worth it. It is worth it. It's a wonderful painting and we're very grateful.

[00:30:47]So, usually when we hear the name Ludwig Bemlman's, one name springs to mind and that would be Meline, the little Parisian girl. But there's no Meline in this picture. So what can you tell us about it? How did you come by it?

[00:31:03]>> Well, my uncle who lived in Chicago and my aunt were friends with Ludvik Bemlman's.

[00:31:10]>> When most people hear Ludvig Belelmans, they think of Meline, the little Parisian girl that first appeared in the 1939 book Meline. The story follows a brave little girl living in a boarding school in Paris with 11 other girls, all cared for by Miss Cleavell. But more importantly, this piece tells a very different story. Now, Bemlman's himself was a man of many talents. He was a restaurant, hotelier, writer, illustrator, even a screenwriter. He once joked that his greatest inspiration was a low bank account. Visually, the subject seems unclear, but a closer look reveals the word Rio and the date 58 that points to Rio de Janeiro, likely depicting the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer. The painting captures lush tropical foliage with energetic lines and bold color that may look faded at first glance. It even has underdrawing and all that gives it a vivid almost hectic feel. Despite it not being a meline work, it stands out for its beauty.

[00:32:12]>> Well, as I mentioned at the beginning, Madeline is obviously the name that's most associated with Belelmans and there's a certain price point for that.

[00:32:20]This is not a Meline work. However, it still has good value and at auction I would suggest an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.

[00:32:29]>> And if you were to insure it, which you'd mentioned, I think 20,000 would be >> fair. I don't think it should be anything less than that.

[00:32:37]>> Now, of course, if Meline was walking around in the jungle here, that would make a big difference to it.

[00:32:42]>> But I really like this one, and I'm glad you like it, too.

[00:32:44]>> I think it's beautiful.

[00:32:47]I brought um an Erna Rosenstein painting. I know that Erna Rosenstein was a Holocaust survivor. It's painted in 1955. I've had it for about 37 years.

[00:33:00]It was from an auction house where they stuff for a charity. Na Rosenstein was a Holocaust survivor. The systematic murder of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. It began in 1933 and continued until 1945 when Allied forces defeated Nazi Germany and liberated the camps. Rosenstein, born in 1913 in what is now Lviv, was a key figure in Polish avantgard art and deeply influenced by surrealism, studying across Europe before returning to Poland in 1939.

[00:33:36]During the war, she and her mother were forced into a Jewish ghetto while her father went into hiding. In 1942, during an attempted escape using false documents, both her parents were murdered. Those experiences shaped her work profoundly. After the war, she resumed painting in 1945, though none of her earlier works survived. Now, this particular work was painted in 1955.

[00:34:01]It's oil on canvas and reflects that emotional weight created during a period when artistic expression was restricted just before she reemerged in the late 1950s. For people who sympathize with her story, it's definitely a great piece to have.

[00:34:17]>> Do you have any idea what it's worth?

[00:34:19]>> If you had to guess what you paid for it 37 or so years ago, what do you think that might have been?

[00:34:23]>> I was thinking 700.

[00:34:25]>> If this were to come up to auction today, we would estimate this painting at $50,000 to $70,000.

[00:34:31]Wow.

[00:34:33]Wow.

[00:34:35]Wow.

[00:34:46]Thank you.

[00:34:52]Wow.

[00:35:02]This is my Wellman charl horn. It's called time for man and beast. And it kind of reflects how unusual a life Wellman's had. He was incarcerated in Louisiana as a child and was released from prison in his mid- teens. Did some more petty crimes and they put him in jail for another 20 years.

[00:35:21]>> Oh my goodness. When he was in jail, he started creating art and he would give it to the other prisoners and some of it ended up in the Smithsonian Institute of Art.

[00:35:33]>> Wellman Shalhorn had an unusual life and this unusual painting is meant to show that. It's titled Time for Man and Beast. Now, Shalhorn was born in Louisiana in 1952 and faced a difficult early life, including incarceration as a child and later spending another 20 years in prison. It was during that time he began creating art, often on scraps of paper, giving pieces away to fellow inmates. Despite those beginnings, some of his work eventually made its way into major collections, including the Smithsonian Institution and the American Visionary Art Museum. His style carries the hallmarks of classic outsider art, such as dense repetition, layered detail, and a sense that every inch of the surface matters. This piece created with marker on what appears to be cardboard and signed at center right captures that energy fully. What makes it stand out is how it transforms a difficult past into something deeply expressive and unmistakably original.

[00:36:33]>> This one because it's quite large and has everything you want to see in a piece by him. I would say at auction I would estimate it between $2 and $3,000.

[00:36:45]>> That's fantastic.

[00:36:46]>> What' you pay for it? 700.

[00:36:49]>> Good job. And good eye.