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Poop-covered van Dyck painting found in NY shed sells for $3M

It seemed like a lot of money for such a crappy painting.

An Anthony van Dyck piece found in a shed in upstate New York has sold for a staggering $3.1 million at auction.

The long-lost work was auctioned off at Sotheby’s “Master Paintings Part I” sale on Thursday, alongside pieces by Agnolo Bronzino, Titian and Melchior de Hondecoeter.

The oil sketch, which dates back to between 1615 and 1618, was reportedly a live model study for the Flemish master’s opus “Saint Jerome with an Angel,” which is currently on display in Amsterdam, Artnews reported. It depicts an elderly naked man slouched on a stool with his face shrouded in shadow and his lean musculature clearly defined.

Art collector Albert B. Roberts had originally discovered the ritzy rough draft, entitled “A Study For Saint Jerome, in a shed in Kinderhook, NY. And while the back of the canvas was riddled with bird droppings, the art aficionado identified it as a Dutch Golden Age painting and purchased it for $600.

Roberts had his find authenticated in 2019 by art historian Susan Barnes, who recognized the template as a “surprisingly well-preserved” work by Van Dyck.

“The oil sketch is an impressive and important find that helps us understand more about the artist’s method as a young man,” she wrote.

An oil painting titled "A Study for Saint Jerome," far right, by artist Sir Anthony Van Dyck, is displayed during a media preview at Sotheby's New York, Friday Jan. 20, 2023, in New York.
AP

Roberts subsequently offered the blueprint to Sotheby’s, after which it went under the hammer for the aforementioned seven figures. Part of the proceeds will go towards Albert B. Roberts Foundation Inc, which provides financial support to artists and various charities, per the auction house.

Three million dollars might seem like a lot of money for a poop-splattered blueprint. However, the nearly-three foot tall work is reportedly one of two such live studies of that scale to survive.

“They weren’t really meant to be exhibited,” explained Christopher Apostle, the head of the Old Master Paintings department at Sotheby’s in New York, according to The Times Of London. “The artist would often keep them in the studio to refer back to later.”  

This isn’t the first time a long-lost artwork has sold for an eye-popping sum of late.

Last year, a French woman who won back a family painting stolen by the Nazis auctioned the piece off for $1.23 million.