The words “I should’ve known” is fairly popular, but when it comes to selling oil paintings for much less than they are worth it’s just painful. There are quite a few oil paintings dangling around the house that could be worth a lot of money. The next time you present your oil paintings for sale consider the following.

A small Robert Gemmell Hutchison painting called “Three infants collect mussels from the seashore”, dating back to the early 20th century was discovered among a bunch of regular pictures and prints. The owner had no idea what the painting was worth and luckily he didn’t just throw it away. Adrian Rathbone, fine arts manager informed the owner of the painting’s history and finally it was auctioned off for 3600 pounds, even though the catalogue pricing was estimated at 600 pounds.

Unfortunately not all the owners know what they have. One in particular traded an Ivan Aivazovsky painting for a dental appointment in the 1950’s. It was painted in 1846 and is known as “The sunset over the Great Lavra. Holy Athos” After the dentist passed away in the 1990’s it was sold off at the village auction. How it ended up in Norway and where it was for the first hundred years nobody knows. More recently the painting was sold for 790 000 Euros. One can only hope the dental appointment was worth it.

For some it’s a hard lesson to learn and when you place that oil paintings for sale ad on the garage door think very carefully. Even when a painting looks like a child might have scribbled it within 5 minutes; it could just be an early ticket for retirement. If you find this hard to believe then look at “The Scream” by Edvard Munch; it sold for more than $120 million and can easily be mistaken for something an angry teenager painted while thinking about his or her parents.

To read more about Edvard Munch check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch