A Michigan collector paid $30 for a seashell painting at an estate sale; it was later identified as a 1951 Gertrude Abercrombie work; now it has sold in New York for a record $1,352,600!
Alderman Merriam’s Shells, 1951 Everyone peeks at an estate sale. He did too. He thought he would get his hands on some records or perhaps some mid-century furniture. That’s when he saw a painting hanging in the dark corner of a hallway. For most people, it may not necessarily have been an extraordinary painting. All…