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An antiques collector acquired the artwork at a Minnesota garage sale in 2016, later contacting the museum to authenticate the lost painting.

The Garage-Sale Van Gogh… Is Not A Van Gogh

Elimar. Courtesy LMI Group International, Inc.

A portrait attributed to Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh isn't by the artist, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam have maintained, after receiving a 458-page report by art research firm LMI Group International that claims otherwise. It's the second time the painting has been sent for authentication.

The painting, titled Elimar (1889), is of a fisherman by the sea. An antiques collector allegedly acquired the work at a Minnesota garage sale in 2016, later contacting the Van Gogh Museum to authenticate it. However, the museum denied the association based on 'stylistic features'.

LMI bought the artwork in 2019 for an undisclosed amount. The verification, for which the company shelled out 30,000 USD, was undertaken over four years and combined traditional connoisseurship with data science methods. Now, LMI claims it is worth at least 15 million USD.

Their research ties Elimar to Van Gogh's later output, citing similarities in palette (muted), composition (three-quarter view), materials (19th-century pigment and egg white glaze over the canvas), and handwriting (from letters in the inscription 'Elimar').

Van Gogh is also known to have copied the artwork of artists he admired; Elimar is based on a painting by Danish realist painter Michael Ancher, according to LMI. A DNA test further found that a strand of hair embedded in the painting's surface belonged to a man.

LMI Group International is a data science company that oversees the market release of 'major orphaned artworks' valued over 15 million USD. It has compared its operations to an investment bank's. Elimar is the only project listed on the firm's website at the time of writing. —[O]

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