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Alexander Calder Necklace Found At A Flea Market For $15, Could Fetch $300,000

$15 Flea Market Purchase Is Actually A Rare Piece Of Art
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A rare piece of jewelry plucked from a flea market in 2005 is finally heading to the bidding block, with a price tag that's sure to make any thrifter blush.

The treasure in question -- a necklace designed by the great American sculptor Alexander Calder -- was purchased for the bargain price of $15 and is now for sale at Christie's, where it is expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000 dollars.


Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Untitled (Necklace), 1938, brass

According to Bloomberg, Philadelphia resident Norma Ifill was perusing a flea market eight years ago when she stumbled upon the sleek silver necklace, having no clue that sixty years before it hung in the Museum of Modern Art.

"I thought it looked so tribal," Ifill told Bloomberg. "I wore it about four-five times max and every time I wore it, people always admired it. I can’t believe I had a Calder necklace all this time and had no idea."

It wasn't until three years later, when Ifill visited an Alexander Calder jewelry exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Museum, that she realized her prized piece of costume jewelry could be a bonafide artwork.

After speaking with the exhibition's curator, Ifill took the necklace to the Calder Foundation in New York, where its status as a genuine Calder was confirmed. Known for his kinetic artworks, Calder designed over a thousand pieces of jewelry throughout his career. In fact, Ifill learned that the very same necklace she purchased was on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1943.

The exact value of the flea market gem will soon be determined when the work heads to the auction block this fall. The fortuitous find will be offered in the First Open Sale of Post War and Contemporary Art at Christie's, taking place September 26.

The story stands as just another friendly reminder to visit your local flea market. If you don't believe us, scroll through our favorite dramatic art finds in the slideshow below.

The Most Dramatic Art Finds Of 2012
Owl In The Attic(01 of09)
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Jane Cordery, an art teacher in Hampshire, England, discovered this detailed bird portrait in her attic after attempting to clean the space for a plumber. She e-mailed a photograph of the find to Christie's, where "The White Owl," was identified as the work of pre-Raphaelite artist William James Webbe, and valued at £70,000, or $113,449. (credit:Christie's)
A Lost Da Vinci(02 of09)
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A lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci may have turned up in a Scottish farmhouse owned by a family of non-collectors, named the McLarens. The discovered portrait, which should be officially dated by next year, bears telltale hairlines, shoulders, toes, and a hidden fleur-de-lys that point to Da Vinci, as well as a likeness to a traced figure in the "Last Supper." If the farmhouse find is indeed a 500-year-old original, it is may be worth over $150 million.
A Dali At Goodwill(03 of09)
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A mysterious donor dropped off a signed etching by Surrealist master Salvador Dali at a Goodwill in Tacoma, Washington this year, where an art-savvy employee quickly identified it. It was since added to the organization's online auction system, where it sold for a bargain price of $21, 005. (credit:Tacoma Goodwill Industries)
The One That Got Away(04 of09)
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Here's one of those art find stories that's dramatic for the wrong reasons. Reinhold Hoffmann, a 70-year-old retiree, captured the attention of European media when his partner bought a $25 book of old stamps at a Dresden, Germany, flea market, and one of them of them looked like a one-cent stamp from 1867 potentially worth $3 million, featuring Benjamin Franklin and a rare "Z Grill" pattern. The Philatelic Foundation quickly gave Hoffman the bad news: just one of those lame F Grills, bro.
Meanwhile, In Another German Flea Market...(05 of09)
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A luckier German bargain shopper stumbled across the rare book treasure of a lifetime. A consultation with the auction house Ketterer Kunst revealed that a brochure he paid €5 for, a catalog for a 1912 traveling exhibition of German expressionist Die Brücke artists, is valued at €18,000, or $23,400.
A Bargain Bolotowsky (06 of09)
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Like most unsuspecting thrifters, Beth Feeback wasn't aware of her painting's famous origins when she bought it at a North Carolina Goodwill for $9.99. In fact the artist, who specializes in portraits of cats, was just looking to upcycle an unwanted canvas for her own work. But a quick Google search of a name printed on the back of the canvas prevented her from turning the original Ilya Bolotowsky into scrap. ABC News reports that Feeback sold her abstract find for $27,000 at auction.
The Flea Market Renoir(07 of09)
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A woman who bought a $7 box lot at a flea market unwittingly scored a painting by Pierre-August Renoir. But don't get too jealous: "Renoir Girl," as the finder was known to the media, wasn't able to cash in her original "Paysage Bords De Seine." In a dramatic twist, the painting that launched a thousand flea market visits turned out to be stolen six decades ago from the Baltimore Museum of Art.
A Hidden JFK(08 of09)
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Pam Dwyer's purchase of a horse painting at a yard sale in Arizona turned out to be more than it seemed. On a hunch, Dwyer and her husband removed the work from the frame only to uncover a portrait of President John F. Kennedy from 1961, by the infamous forger and artist Carmelo Soraci. While the painting is proving tough to appraise, experts note that its historical significance makes it a good fit for a place like the Smithsonian.
An Unloved Masterpiece(09 of09)
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Sometimes you just don't like a painting, no matter how "great" it is. That's how one Scottish woman felt in the early 1960s, when her husband came home with a painting of roses that she disliked enough to banish to a spare room. Let this be a lesson to those who are easily dismissive of gifts. The BBC reports that the painting in question was recently identified as "Pink Roses," an original oil work by one of Scotland's most influential artists, Samuel Peploe, valued by McTear's Auctioneers in Glasgow at £300,000. The price the obedient husband originally paid? "Not significant enough to remember," according to the unnamed seller, who is the couple's son.

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