The 15 million question: is painting from flea market a real Van Gogh?
In 2016, an American art collector bought a painting at a flea market in the US state of Minnesota for less than $50. The work in question depicts a fisherman smoking a pipe. The bottom right corner of the work has the name “Elimar” as a signature. And the pointillist style does remind one of Vincent Van Gogh.
Indeed, the work in question bears resemblance to the style used by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), and a team of art experts is now investigating whether it might be a genuine Van Gogh.
Historians, scientists and curators joined forces and came up with a 450-page report and one simple conclusion: “A comprehensive, year-long investigation by experts from a variety of fields has produced evidence that Elimar is an authentic work by the artist.” So reports the New York-based art research firm LMI Group International. According to the team of experts, the portrait was painted during Van Gogh's stay at the southern French asylum Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Arles, between May 1889 and May 1890. A few weeks later, the depressed painter died at the age of 37. According to experts, the portrait represents a period when the artist “returned to themes and images of his youth.”
Whether Elimar will ever be officially recognized as an authentic Van Gogh is in the hands of the experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. If that were to happen, the painting would instantly be worth $15 million.
(FVDV for Tagtik/Source: Wall Street Journal - The Independent/Illustration picture: Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)