DENNIS, Mass.—A painting owned for generations by a Cape Cod family who had no idea what the piece was worth could fetch up to $500,000 at auction.
The painting from the 1860s depicts three figures stacking hay as the sun sets behind them, but the frame had slipped over the artist's signature.
The family took it to an appraisal event at Eldred's, an East Dennis auction gallery, and learned the piece was "Haying on the Marsh" by Martin Johnson Heade.
Heade was one of the founders of a school of art called luminism which focused on capturing the effects of light on the landscape and hiding visible brushstrokes.
Josh Eldred, an auction house official, told the Cape Cod Times that the family was "rather surprised" by the appraisal. Officials aren't identifying the family until after the auction next week.
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Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com
