Couple Who Lost Wyeth Windfall See Their 'Happy Ending'

UPDATE Dec 19, 2023 6:38 AM CST

In what the New York Times deems "a happy ending after all," a rare NC Wyeth painting that a New Hampshire couple picked up at a thrift store for $4 has sold for much more. Aviva Lehmann of Heritage Auctions tells the paper that, after reading about how a buyer who'd promised Tracy and Tom Donahue $191,000 for the "Ramona" illustration flaked out on them and didn't pay up, she found another buyer who came through. "I had a visceral reaction," Lehmann says of hearing about the Donahues' plight. In what she calls "kismet," she said the buyer she had in mind called her privately before she was able to reach out, as he'd also read about what had happened to the Donahues. Lehmann wouldn't give an exact amount that the new buyer paid, only noting that "it's six figures." There's no flaking out this time: The Donahues confirm the money has already been transferred to their bank account.

Nov 30, 2023 10:50 AM CST

It was one of those feel-good tales about a sharp-eyed buyer striking it rich with a thrift shop discovery. This one, though, has fizzled, at least for now. In September, a New Hampshire couple sold an illustration by acclaimed artist NC Wyeth via auction for $191,000, which was quite a return on their investment: They'd bought it for $4 in 2017 at a Savers thrift store in Manchester, per Artnet News. Now, the New York Times reports that the unnamed Australian buyer apparently got cold feet and simply never paid auction house Bonhams Skinner or picked up the painting.

"We're crushed," Tracy Donahue, who bought the illustration at the thrift store, tells the Times. "I've never gotten that close to, you know, hoping for something." The auction house offered to keep the painting and try to sell it again, but the Donahues didn't like the terms of the deal and reclaimed possession. It's not clear why the purchase fell through, given that bidders are typically screened before allowing to participate in such auctions. Wyeth is believed to have made the illustration while working on a cover design for a 1939 edition of the novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, per Artnet. (More art auction stories.)