Aivazovsky’s painting considered worthless by its owner sold for $1.2m in Sweden

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ivan Aivazovsky’s painting considered worthless by its owner and nearly donated to charity fetched a staggering 7.6 million kronor ($1.2 million) at an auction in Uppsala in eastern Sweden, The Local reported.

“When we told him what it was worth, the air in the room turned electric,” auctioneer Knut Knutson of Uppsala Auction House (Uppsala Auktionskammare) said.

The owner, “an ordinary Swede”, had been oblivious to what he had hanging on his wall for almost a decade. The painting, which had been left to him by his wife when she passed away, turned out to be a work of Russian master Ivan Aivazovsky dating back to 1858. Its name was "The Battle of Bomarsund".

The improbable story began when the elderly man who was moving house decided he had some stuff to get rid of. He got in contact with a small Stockholm auction house and sent a few boxes over to them, including a large canvas his wife had left him when she passed away in 2002, which would be too large for the walls of his new home.

On a note he had written: “Will you accept these things? Sell what you can and leave the rest to the Red Cross!”

The painting was put out for auction on the net with a starting price of 8,000-10,000 kronor. However, when the activity around the painting exceeded expectations, the head of the auction house decided it might be best to seek expert advice.

They then turned to Uppsala Auction House, known for selling a lot of Russian objects in recent years.

“When we got the email we almost exploded with excitement. We realized, of course, that if this was a genuine Aivazovsky it would be a painting worth millions”, Knutson said.

According to Knutson, the owner, who started out as a lumberjack and got an education through correspondence courses, still finds it hard to believe what has happened. “He is very happy and completely overwhelmed, but he won't quite believe it until he can see the money in his account,” Knutson said.