What changed hands?
Gertrude Abercrombie, Alderman Merriam's Shells. Estimated at $150,000-$250,000. Bidding opened at $80,000. New world auction record for Abercrombie.
From $30 to $1.35 million
The painting was bought for $30 at an estate sale in Michigan, its significance unrecognized. At Freeman's in New York, bidding opened at $80,000 and climbed to $1,352,600 — a return of roughly 45,000 times the estate-sale price. The 1951 work had not been seen publicly for nearly 75 years.
A new auction record for Abercrombie
Gertrude Abercrombie was an American Surrealist whose small, enigmatic paintings circulated in the Chicago art world of the 1940s and 1950s. The estimate of $150,000-$250,000 was already ambitious for an artist whose previous auction record stood far lower. The result reset the benchmark for her work by a wide margin.
Read the number carefully
An auction result captures a particular object, a particular sale and the buyers competing on that occasion. It does not establish the value of every similar object, or what this one would sell for today.
Our selection keeps historical results separate from asking prices and estimates. Where the cited report does not break out fees, we say so rather than inventing a hammer price.
Sale documentation: Freeman's press release — Abercrombie auction record ↗
What does “source reviewed” mean?
We checked the published report against the amount and object listed here. That does not independently authenticate the object or confirm settlement of the transaction.