Malia MendezJun 16, 2026 – 5.00amSixty years ago, Helene Plotkin was perusing a thrift store in White Plains, New York, when a painting nestled among several others caught her eye.Plotkin, who has an undergraduate degree in art, found herself mesmerised by the artwork’s bursts of colour and its bold brushwork, which evoked the Fauvist style she loved. In the painting, a woman dressed in black sits in a domestic setting dashed with bright blue and orange hues. Plotkin remembers paying less than $US100 ($142) for it.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles
AI chatbot helps a $140 thrift store painting sell for $360,000
The jackpot shows how AI may be able to provide ordinary people with the kind of identification historically limited to the expertly trained human eye.
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