GUEST: I inherited it from my mother in the late '50s. We lived in Hawaii and she went to a sale at the warehouse of Honolulu Academy of Arts. And back in the back, this painting was there, unframed, and it had a big splash of white paint across the front and they wanted seven dollars for it. And I remember thinking, "Gee, Mom, Dad's a pastor, "we don't have much money, and you're going to buy a ruined painting for seven dollars." But she did.
APPRAISER: This is an artist who's very well-known, particularly in the Netherlands. His name is Cornelis van Leemputten. He specialized in pictures just like this. Cornelis van Leemputten was self-taught. He was born in the 1840s, but by the 1860s, he was selling his paintings professionally. A painting like this, if sold on the international market, would make about $8,500.
GUEST: Great! I'm just really amazed. (chuckles)