Flea market find turns out to be $70m work by renaissance master

The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a grassy Bank: A pen and black ink drawing attributed to Albrecht Dürer has gone up for sale with an unbelievable story. Photo / Getty Images

It could be the art deal of the last five centuries.

The tatty ink engraving, picked up as an afterthought for US$30, could now be worth millions as an original artwork from a famous renaissance artist.

Titled "The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a Grassy Bank," it is suspected to have been drawn by the 1500s superstar artist Albrecht Dürer, forgotten in an American flea market.

Clifford Schorer, 55 from Boston, said he had come across the picture by chance.

Schorer said he had been running late for a retirement party when he stopped in to pick up a present.

"I forgot my gift," he told the New York Post. "It was 5:05pm and I didn't think I would find anything open."

A last-minute Google search delivered him to a bric-a brac and rare book dealer called Brainerd Phillipson, in a remote part of Massachusetts.

Picking up a book for the party, the owner had a question for him: "do you know anything about art?"

The understated question is the kind of shorthand used by confidence tricksters and hucksters, looking to offload forgeries and second rate paintings, but in this case the answer was "yes."

Rare bookseller Brainerd Phillipson shared the tip-off to the art sale of the century. Photo / Facebook

Schorer, who is an amateur arts dealer and one-time president of the Worcester Art Museum, said he'd be happy to look at the drawing.

Sharing a pixellated smartphone image with Schorer the dealer said he had a contact who was trying to authenticate an engraving with the distinctive signature of Albrecht Dürer.

It seemed too good to be true.

Little of Dürer's work has ever been auctioned. The last authenticated image went on sale in 1978, when a watercolour fetched $1.9 million at Sotheby's.

Despite his scepticism, eleven days later, Schorer found himself visiting the picture to get a better look.

"I said, 'This is either a masterpiece or the greatest fraud in the world,'" he told the Post.

The backstory was dubious. Bought by an American auto parts dealer, the seller said he had picked it up for $30 from a sale following the death of architect Jean-Paul Carlihan.

According to the Boston Globe it had allegedly been bought in Paris in 1919, but was thought to be a worthless replica.

Albrecht Dürer returned from his travels with a rhinoceros. Photo / Creative Commons

So it was a moment of madness when Schorer offered him US$100,000 on the spot.
After going out on a limb, he brought it to top conservator Jane McAusland.

Travelling to London on business, he took the picture with him to see if his investment had been a good one.

McAusland who previously had authenticated works for the Queen's Royal Library in Windsor Castle, agreed to look at the image.

The original assessment was not a positive one. The framing and thick layers of adhesive dating back to the 19 century made it seem certain it was a fake. Schorer wanted a second appraisal, and urged McAusland to dig deeper behind the materials.

"I cared deeply" he told the Post. He didn't want his rash investment to come across as a "lack of sanity."

"I wanted her to clean all the backing off and send a beam of light through the drawing to see if it had a watermark."

Careful excavation cleared up the picture, and cleared Schorer's conscience. There behind the backing was the watermark of Dürer's 16th century patron, Jakob Fugger.

Schorer says it is his intention to sell, "The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a Grassy Bank."

With the image dated and a fascinating story behind a previously unknown work, it could be the find of a lifetime.

"The speculation is that this will be at least US$50 million," about $72 million dollars.

Wizard of Nuremberg: Albrecht Dürer, a dead ringer for Albus Dumbledore. Photo / Creative Commons

Albrecht Dürer wizard of Nuremberg

Albrecht Dürer was a polymath and traveller born in 1471, Nuremberg.

He is perhaps best known as the first person to bring an image of a rhinoceros to Europe.
Today his hometown is full of sculptures of animals and giant hares, devised from his work.

The one thing he linked to paint, more than exotic creatures, were self portraits.

The distinctive monogram AD and imposing portraits from the 1500s, are thought to be the inspiration for another beardy wizard in the Harry Potter novels of JK Rowling - Albus Dumbledore.