The painting by an unknown artist bought for one hundred euros was indeed a valuable work by a famous Finnish artist. The riddle of the work was solved with the help of a ray of sunlight.
It is extremely rare for an auction or flea market purchase to turn out to be a valuable work of art. That’s what happened to a couple who bought a painting at an auction in Tampere at a ridiculous price.
He enjoys art and goes to art exhibitions a lot.
No one was interested in the work
Joona and his wife went to the auction to look at the lamps in 2017.
There were lots of boards at the back of the auction room. There were a few unframed portraits in poor condition. One of them made an immediate impression.
– Great oil paint job. By the way, that was done by a real artist, Joona threw to his wife.
The painting had ended up at auction from the estate. There was no information about its author, nor who was immortalized in the plaque.
– I raised my hand. None of the customers were interested in the work. We were the only ones shouting it.
The auction price of the board was 100 euros, on top of which came 25 euros in auction costs.
– So cheap and nicely painted. How is that possible, the new owner wondered.
An unknown man was watching the family
The origin and story of the painting started bothering me the day after the purchase. Could the work be Russian? And who is the handsome young man on the board?
The family grew. The work was forgotten for years. Sometimes Joona planned with his wife to frame and restore it. They were not made because they were too expensive.
– The board was hanging from a string in the kitchen. Once the older child’s porridge flew into it.
Sometimes the board was in the study on top of the closet and sometimes in the living room.
– As if an unknown man had moved in to stare and observe our lives. He became a part of our home.
The faint writing led to the author’s trail
Once in the spring, the sun shone brightly inside the apartment. A ray of sunlight hit the work, which Joona and his wife were changing places.
That’s when they first noticed faint writing behind the board, on the inside of the wedge wood.
– It read the letters mag and apparently a name that ended in ius.
The words målat av and the last part of the name delfelt were still found.
– I immediately realized that the word had to be Edelfelt!
Joona wiped the dust off the surface of the board and got confirmation. In the portrait, at the height of the man’s right shoulder, there was a faint and hardly noticeable inscription A. Edelfelt.
The work had been in front of the eyes of family and strangers for years, but no one had previously noticed the artist’s possible signature.
He is also the most faked artist in Finland, or at least one of them.
Therefore, a suspicion crept into my mind that the painting must be a copy of a famous master’s work.
A story like a detective story
A persistent research project began, reminiscent of the work of a secret police. Joona wanted to know everything about the work and to be sure of its author.
He studied the sketchbooks of the National Gallery and borrowed books about Edelfelt from the library.
He approached experts and was in contact with the Ateneum Art Museum, among others, but was left without an answer. No one recognized the work they bought at auction and its youth.
He bought a UV lamp, in the light of which he examined the painting.
– I also visited all possible museums and looked at Albert Edelfelt’s paintings under a microscope.
Joona scrolled through the list. Work number 346 looked familiar.
– It was a wonderful moment – like from a movie, he recalls now.
At the same time, it also became clear who the artist had painted in the work.
The sad fate of a young man
He was born in Helsinki and died of tuberculosis in Lausanne, Switzerland when he was only 23 years old.
The boy was to become the director of the Tervakoski paper mill.
The work is painted based on photographs and was completed in 1885.
The letters mag that Joona distinguished from the portrait were from the word maisteri, magister. Ius was the end of the word Wasenius.
– The work had a sad content in a way. It has been a remembrance of the son, who was supposed to become the head of the family, commissioned by the father for his family in the midst of enormous grief.
The painting was in \”dangerously bad condition\”
Joona took the painting to him.
The conservator stated that the work was in exceptionally poor condition.
– It was blurry. When I looked at it in the side light, I saw that it was in a dangerously bad shape, says Tuulikki Kilpinen.
– The paint was coming off in many places. It had also suffered water damage at some point.
The conservation of the painting took a long time. It was also framed.
Kilpinen wrote in his statement about the work in January 2022: \”There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the work as a painting by Albert Edelfelt.\”
A rare find for a treasure hunter
– It is very rare.
The same applies to all valuable art. A customer visiting flea markets and auctions would hope to find a valuable work of art at an affordable price, but is usually disappointed.
– There may be sketches or graphic prints, but hardly any paintings, Selkokari continues.
The value of the work multiplied
Now the auction find of Joona and his wife is \”insured for a significant amount\” and the painting bought for a hundred \”is worth tens of thousands of euros\”.
The sum that sounds large is small compared to what has been paid for famous Edelfelt works at auctions. For example, the price of the painting *Among the Roses* rose to around 300,000 euros at a Swedish auction in March.
Joona emphasizes that monetary value is not the main thing for them.
– Ever since I was little, I’ve tried to look for treasure. It was great that we could find out the story of the board and experience an adventure that cannot be measured in money, says Joona.
– I’m sure you won’t come across a discovery of this standard again.
Interest in auctions has not died down. Joona browses all Finnish auction catalogs every week.
– As a lesson from our story, I would say that you should buy something beautiful and something you like.
Adolf is waiting in Porvoo
The portrait of Adolf Wasenius will not be seen in the exhibition of Albert Edelfelt’s art opening at the Ateneum Art Museum.
– The coincidences continued, Joona states.
Now the portrait will be publicly displayed for the first time in the Villa Albert exhibition space in Haikon. It opens to the public on the same day as the studio, May 4.
– It is a great honor to be able to borrow the portrait and display it here, says Hanna Kaarina Syrjäläinen.
– We have a jubilee year. The atelier built by Edelfelt turns 140 years old.
Painter, graphic artist and illustrator Albert Edelfelt spent his summer in Haikou and painted more than 200 works there.
He also died there at the age of 51.
More about the colorful steps in Yle’s podcast
The five-part podcast can be found on Yle Areena.