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Thrift-Store Painting Bought for Under $100 Identified by AI and Sold for $254,000
Helene Plotkin paid less than $100 for the work in White Plains, New York, sixty years ago. Artificial intelligence later identified it as an original by Scottish Colorist F.C.B. Cadell.
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A painting Helene Plotkin bought for less than $100 at a thrift store in White Plains, New York, sixty years ago sold at auction this month for 189,200 pounds including fees, or roughly $254,000. Plotkin, now 88 and with an undergraduate degree in art, kept the canvas on her wall until December 2025. B.
Cadell, a claim later confirmed by appraisers at Lyon & Turnbull. Her son Barry Plotkin, 60, uploaded a photo of the painting to Google’s Gemini AI assistant a few months ago while visiting her home in Florida. Gemini identified characteristics of Cadell’s style, suggested the subject was Bethia Hamilton Don Wauchope, and directed him to examine the back of the canvas, where an auction marking, canvas stamp, and processing date were found.
The AI recommended contacting specialists Nick Curnow and Alice Strang at Lyon & Turnbull. ” Both paintings were most likely created in the mid-1920s. ” The firm noted that Christie’s in London had sold the same Cadell painting in 1966 for 21 pounds.
Helene Plotkin said she plans to give the proceeds to her sons and does not want any of the money herself. She added that her one hope is that the buyer might occasionally display the painting publicly so her grandchildren could recognize it.
