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Easton Antique Shop Owner May Have Unearthed Renoir Masterpiece
A local antique shop owner’s keen eye and a $12 purchase could lead to a multi-million dollar windfall. Heidi Markow, co-owner of Salvage Goods in Easton and a certified appraiser, bought a drawing at a Montgomery County auction in January. Back at her shop, a closer look revealed a faint but recognizable signature: Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Markow told NBC10 that the drawing “was just sitting there. I did not touch it, I didn’t look at it, I didn’t know anything about it – I just said, ‘I want this.'”
She immediately suspected its value far exceeded its price tag. Renoir’s works often command six or seven figures at auction, as Markow pointed out to The Morning Call.
In 1997, Renoir’s oil painting, “The Bather,” sold for over $20 million in New York.
Inscriptions on the back of the drawing suggest it belonged to a Philadelphia art collector who donated pieces to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It’s believed the drawing arrived in the US in the 1920s, shortly after Renoir’s death.
The sketch is a nude portrayal believed to be of Renoir’s wife, Aline Charigot. “He had a fascination with the female body,” Markow told the Morning Call, referencing one of the artist’s quotes: “His work wasn’t done until he could pinch it.”
Markow added, “When you look at this, it makes sense…it’s so real and so beautiful…you could definitely pinch it. To me, it’s a masterpiece.”
Markow is “cautiously optimistic” as she awaits professional appraisal next month from the Wildenstein Plattner Institute in New York. However, based on her own expertise and hundreds of hours of examination, she’s confident in its authenticity.
“I’m pretty confident that what I have is an authentic, in-his-hand drawing,” Markow stated, describing the piece as beautifully framed, in amazing condition, with period-correct paper and framing. “The style of his drawing is spot on.
His signature – I verified each letter – is spot on.”