Sometimes, the least noticed things give us big surprises. It was one of the least favorite pieces of art of the family members and that is why it was feeding on dust in a dark room. But when Rue got married and decided to start his own family in a  new house he took the painting along with himself. And that is when he decided to sell it off. His decision turned out to be amazing.

Clueless

Rue Ferguson of Texas was not a big fan of art but he knew a hell about the things he adored. And this painting that had sprung back into his life was by no mean eye-pleasing, in fact, it made his heart skip a beat when he saw it. It was making him uncomfortable with every passing second. The man had never felt this way before. The painting was evoking a feeling of both curiosity in him. There it was dangling on the wall reflecting a mystery coming there way. There was not much he knew about this painting. He knew that the painting had been in his family for generations. It came into his family in 1940s when his great-grandparents brought it into their home. Interestingly, how did they find the painting is still a mystery as they never discussed it with anyone nor did anyone have any clue as to why did they get it?

A Gut Feeling

He had never observed the content of the painting. All he knew was that it featured a man. He for the first time noticed that the man was donning a white linen suit, wide straw hat, and brown leather sandals. Whereas Rue was staring at the painting with a puzzling expression, the man in the painting shot a serious glance at him. He was frowning and looked stern. An amazing idea had clicked him. He ran his finger through the edges of the painting. He touched all the grooves and whirls wondering what the artist would have thought while creating it. He realized that the artist had used oil paint to make it. Rue’s thoughts got followed by hope. He wondered if this giant and old painting was worth some penny.

Two Words

Colleene Fesko saw a signature on the painting and felt immediately drawn to it. The irregular signature conveyed the whole other thing to her. She scanned the signature for a while and then looked up towards Rue. And then she said something that made Rue jump out of his skin. She started, “Well, there are two extraordinarily intriguing words in an artist’s catalog of paintings…” Colleen pointed “And those words are ‘whereabouts unknown’,” Rue could not understand what does it mean. But the woman was not finished yet. She had more to disclose. “My understanding of the painting’s history is that it was painted in 1904,” she continued, pausing for effect, “…by Diego Riviera. And at that time, Diego Riviera, who was arguably one of the most important Latin-American 20th Century artists, was only 18 years old,” she revealed.

The Mind-Blowing Price

Finally, she made her final statement: “I would be putting a retail estimate on the painting of between $800,000 and $1,000,000.” Rue just could not believe his ears. He questioned, “Seriously?”A painting that once was considered worthless and a part of junk was going to earn Rue millions. the only reason why he did not throw it in the trash is that it handed down to him from his father. Who knew a painting of a weird looking man was worth millions. Rue was thanking is starts and the moment he thought of showing it to Colleen.

Worth Millions

“My gosh…unbelievable…” Rue uttered in disbelief, ” I did not expect that!” So can you guess the estimate for the Diego Riviera painting? It went up to $2,200,000. Mariel MacNaughton, the Antiques Roadshow executive stated, “It’s very rare to see works of Rivera’s that old. It’s not a painting that was sitting in a museum for people to see every day.”