Rare Dutch Painting Worth Millions Found Locally

Ever go to a garage sale or look through your basement and think "I wonder if this is worth something?" Well, someone locally took a gamble in Kinderhook and it could be worth millions.

Albert B. Roberts has always had a passion for art and would go through different art collections or auctions and would occasionally buy some to resell.

Roberts went to an auction in Kinderhook in 2002 and decided to buy a painting for $600, thinking it looked like it was from the Dutch Golden Age of paintings (which includes artists like Rembrandt and Vermeer). Roberts didn't know the history of the painting or where it came from. The painting was an oil painting on canvas mounted on a board of a naked elderly man. The painting looked as if the previous owner didn't take care of it, Roberts even saw bird droppings on the back.

Now, almost two decades later, Roberts decided to authenticate the painting and found out it was by Anthony van Dyck, a student of Rubens. Based on some auction prices of some of van Dyck's paintings, this painting could be worth millions of dollars.

For the time being, the painting will be on display for two and a half weeks at the Albany Institute of History & Art, where he is a board member and has donated over 50 other pieces. They believe the painting is one of at least two works van Dyck painted of a man named Jerome, a fourth-century priest and biblical translator.

The Times Union goes into further detail about how Roberts came to find this piece, how they found who the painting is of, and more!