6 Surprising Secondhand Finds That Turned Out to Be Worth Serious Money

Thrift stores, estate sales, antique malls, and garage sales are great places to find unique items for your home. When perusing the aisles for furniture, artwork, books, and other pieces, you may even stumble upon something extremely valuable. 

There have been a few instances when people have brought home seemingly ordinary (but beautiful) items to realize later that they are worth serious money. Ahead, we're sharing six stories where art dealers, collectors, and everyday people have purchased artwork and other rare finds that ended up being worth way more than they paid for.

Marble Bust

About a century ago, a Scottish town council purchased a marble bust created by the celebrated French sculptor Edmé Bouchardon for about $6 at an auction. As time passed, the importance of the 18th-century sculpture was forgotten, and it was eventually misplaced. 

The bust was rediscovered in the late 1990s, holding a door open at a barn. Since its rediscovery, the town council agreed to sell the bust to an anonymous buyer for about $3.2 million. The proceeds will go to Invergordon, the town in northern Scotland that purchased the bust almost 100 years ago. 

Rembrandt Painting

During a visit to a private estate in Camden, Main, an art appraiser and auctioneer came across a 17th-century painting by renowned painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. The painting depicts a young girl in traditional Dutch attire. A label on the back of the portrait from when it was loaned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1970 lists the artist and title. The piece—which was privately owned by the family since the 1920s—sold for $1.4 million auction.

Emily Carr Painting

A painting purchased for $50 by art dealer Allen Treibitz at a barn sale in New York was later identified as an original Emily Carr. Treibitz took the 1912 piece to Heffel Fine Art Auction House in Canada, where it was estimated to be worth anywhere from $73,000 to $147,000.

The auction house believes the painting was gifted to Emily Carr's friend Nell Cozier and her husband in the 1930s. The couple was originally from Victoria, British Columbia but moved to Long Island, where the painting was later discovered by Treibitz. 

Vincent van Gogh Painting

In 2016, an antiques collector purchased an oil painting of a fisherman for $50 at a garage sale in Minnesota. After evaluation, experts believe the portrait, titled Elimar, may be a long-lost piece by Vincent van Gogh worth millions. The artwork, which is dated 1989, depicts a fisherman with a white beard, holding a pipe in his mouth and wearing a round brown hat. The man appears to be on the beach, repairing a net.

Experts believed that van Gogh painted Elimar during his stay at Saint-Paul psychiatric hospital in Southern France. The artist lived there from May 1889 to May 1890. A team of experts consisting of chemists, curators, and patent lawyers investigated the work's authenticity, determining its worth of $15 million.

William Burges Brooch

Jewelry enthusiast Flora Steel purchased a unique brooch in the 1980s at an English antique market for only $25. The brooch featured a cross through the middle of a circle with silver, coral, lapis lazuli, and malachite details.

Steel had no idea the piece was worth thousands until she came across a 2011 Antiques Roadshow "Most Wanted Finds" clip and saw sketches that resembled her brooch. She learned the piece was designed by famous Victorian Gothic Revival designer and architect William Burges. The brooch was auctioned off by Gildings Auctioneers in the spring of 2024 and sold for about $10 thousand.

Pablo Picasso Painting

In 1962, junk dealer Luigi Lo Rosso found a painting in a basement in Capri, Italy. Despite having Picasso's signature on it, the painting sat in his home for decades. Luigi's son, Andrea Lo Rosso, grew suspicious of the painting's artist. This suspicion grew after he saw a photo of Picasso's Buste de Femme Dora Maar,  which looked similar to the painting his father found.

Years later a graphologist at the Arcadia Foundation examined the artwork and confirmed its legitimacy, valuing the painting at around $6.6 million. The Lo Rosso family also plans to seek verification of the painting's authenticity from the experts at the Picasso Foundation.