Flea market picture now worth £10m

Flea market picture now worth £10m

20 May 2015

STUMBLING on a modest painting which turns out to be worth millions is the stuff of implausible movie plots.

But one art collector from Canada is living the dream after purchasing a painting in Downpatrick for around £350— now thought to be worth up to a staggering £10m. 

Blair Mooney is part-owner of the oil painting ‘Study of High Noon’ by Edward Hopper.

Hopper (1882 - 1967) was a prominent American realist painter best known for his oil paintings on the theme of modern American life.

What Blair has his hands on is an early version of Hopper’s 1949 masterpiece ‘High Noon’, which is thought to be a painting of the artist’s wife and muse Jo at their Cape Cod home. Blair’s earlier rendition looks similar to the masterpiece, though it is a third of the size, and contains a second woman and a dog which are ped in the final painting.

Forensic tests have shown Blair’s version was sketched in charcoal underneath the masterpiece and Canadian art dealer Blair and his three friends are convinced by the science. However, to keep the art dealers happy they want to find out the history of this early version.

A friend of Blair’s, Ron Flarity, bought the Hopper painting off ebay from a Downpatrick businessman in 2007, and although he has been tracked down the original owner Blair says there appears to be little additional information. He is therefore offering a $5,000 reward for anyone who can help with information leading to its final authentication.

“It is likely to have been originally bought at flea market or car boot sale so I am hoping someone will look at the painting and say something like ‘that used to be in my granny’s attic’,” he said.

Blair, who has a farm north of Toronto, 

said he got into art dealing as his wife had a gallery, but that he and his friends were more used to dealing with profits of hundreds, not millions. Blair said a chance was taken on the Downpatrick Hopper signed painting but that he presumed it was some kind of copy or tribute.

“When they bought it I was not sure it was authentic,” he said. “Some said it was a little rough.

“It looked like his work but not his work. It was done roughly, it was a study.”

A study of Jo Hopper’s diaries seemed to confirm the changes made to her husband’s ‘High Noon’ painting and the first forensic tests were carried out in 2012. It was then that Blair realised he was on the cusp of a “life changing” amount of money.

Dr George Benn from Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, was among those carrying out the tests and comparing Blair’s painting to the original which hangs in Dayton Art Institute in Ohio.

“Our painting was x-rayed using infra red ultra violet light,” Blair explained. “As we started seeing what was underneath conservator Janice Passafum jumped up and started dancing. 

“I heard ‘Congratulations you have got yourself an American art treasure’.

“I had to take a little stroll.

“I will be financially secure for life. It has taken a lot of work since 2007 to get here and I have been here in Downpatrick over the past week trying to tie up the final ends, dot the i’s and cross the t’s.”

Blair admits to feeling a “little sorry” for the previous owner but points out that he has spent a lot of money on authenticating the painting.

“My biggest sale before has been $1800. Since 2012 spent I have spent $50,000 on this painting, $55,000 if I include coming over here. But this sort of thing doesn’t happen everyday.

“I have been going around Downpatrick showing people the painting but would really like anyone to get in touch who feels they have can help.”

Blair can be contacted by email at losthopper@aol.com or in Canada at 001 519 534 5785.