A painting purchased for less than $100 in a New York charity shop in the 1960s has sold for almost £190,000 at auction after being identified as a work by Scottish Colourist Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell.
Art teacher Helene Plotkin, then in her late 20s, bought the picture in a shop in White Plains in 1966 while searching for pieces to decorate her new home. The painting, titled Portrait Of Miss Don Wauchope, had an illegible signature, but Plotkin was captivated by its composition.
The painting hung in her living room for decades until her son Barry began researching it last year. Using AI technology, the signature was deciphered, and specialists at auction house Lyon & Turnbull confirmed it as a Cadell.
The painting sold for £189,200, including buyer's premium, at Lyon & Turnbull's Scottish paintings and sculpture auction in Edinburgh on Thursday. Plotkin, now 88 and living in Florida, said her background in art history drew her to the piece instantly.
Cadell was one of the Scottish Colourists, a group of early 20th-century artists including SJ Peploe, JD Fergusson, and GL Hunter. Barry Plotkin said the family were delighted and astounded to discover the artist's identity, calling it confirmation of his mother's artistic eye.
