Experts at a New York-based art data science firm believe a long-lost piece by Vincent van Gogh was sold at a garage sale in Minnesota and recently published a report about its investigation.
In a Jan. 28 news release, LMI Group International announced the publication of a 450-page report on a painting called “Elimar,” which it believes is a van Gogh original.
The painting was bought at a Minnesota garage sale for $50 in 2016, and, according to The Wall Street Journal, it could be worth as much as $15 million.
Experts believe the painting was done while the artist was a patient of the Saint-Paul sanitarium in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence between May 1889 and May 1890. It was found with “E L I M A R” on the front of the canvas.
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The report describes the piece, which measures 45.7 by 41.9 centimeters, as an “emotionally rich, profoundly personal work created during the final and tumultuous chapter of van Gogh’s life.”
“In this portrait, van Gogh reimagines himself as an older, wiser man depicted against the serene palette-knife-sculpted sky and smooth expanse of the water, evoking van Gogh’s lifelong personal interest with life at sea,” the release stated.
The portrait shows a somber-looking man with a pipe in his mouth and a fur hat standing by the ocean. The painting has “the same three-quarter view of all four van Gogh self-portraits painted in 1889,” according to the report.
“‘Elimar’ features stylistically distinct elements that appear throughout van Gogh’s oeuvre, including distinctive marks under the eyes, marks at the corner of the mouth, eyelashes, ‘whites of the eyes’ often in blue or green, a pronounced nasal-labial line, cursory shorthand describing the tragus and helix, and the color of cuff set off from the sleeve,” the statement said.
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Analysts also found that a strand of red hair was partially embedded in the corner of the painting, and scientists confirmed it belonged to a male. The painting also had a finish made of egg white, which van Gogh was known to have used.
Despite the stylistic similarities, the Van Gogh Museum has denied the painting’s connection to the famed Dutch artist. In February 2019, LMI Group received this statement from the museum: “We have carefully examined the material you supplied to us and are of the opinion, based on stylistic features, that your work … cannot be attributed to Vincent van Gogh.”
In a statement, LMI Group President Lawrence M. Shindell said his organization took a “data-based approach” to verifying the origin of the painting, and that it “represents a new standard of confidence for bringing to light unknown or forgotten works by important artists.”
“By integrating science and technology with traditional tools of connoisseurship, historical context, formal analysis, and provenance research, we aim both to expand and tailor the resources available for art authentication based on the unique properties of the works under our care,” Shindell said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Van Gogh Museum for comment.
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