College Student Buys Couch from Flea Market, Finds Painting Hidden Inside Worth $27,630
College students are notoriously poor. But one student received a big boost in her income when she went to a local flea market, according to NBC News.
The student bought a pullout couch from a Berlin flea market for only $215, and used it for a while without noticing anything unusual.
It wasn’t until later that she discovered an oil painting inside, just about 10 by 15 inches.
“She used the sofa bed for a while before realizing the painting was in there,” Michaela Derra, spokeswoman for the auction house Kunst Kettler told Reuters. She added that the college student did not know how the oil painting wound up inside the sofa.
Painted by an unknown artist, the work was titled, “Preparation to Escape Egypt” and was sold at the Hamburg art auction in 2007 for $27,630.
The painter was said to be close to the Venetian painter Carol Saraceni. It is in the baroque style and is thought to have originated between 1605 and 1620.
The identity of the student who discovered the painting was not revealed.
This college student is not the only flea market shopper to get more than they bargained for while bargain hunting.
In 2012, one Virginia woman discovered a painting in a box lot with a Paul Bunyan doll and a plastic cow, according to Business Insider.
The painting was purchased for less than $50 and was worth as much as $100,000.
The painting was believed to be French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Paysage Bords de Seine.” The river scene painting was thought to have been painted in 1879.
The woman had stored the painting for a while before realizing that it might be worth something. She had originally planned to discard it and use the frame for another piece of art.
Fortunately, the woman’s mother saw the Renoir plaque on the frame before they destroyed it and decided to put it up for auction.
So the next time you are thinking about tossing or passing by that old flea market treasure, take a closer look; it may be more worthwhile than you could ever imagine.
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