BELLPORT, N.Y. – Works by an obscure Armenian-American abstract impressionist discovered in a New York cottage have been appraised at $30 million.
In 2007, the new owner of a bungalow in Bellport, on Long Island, found thousands of paintings, drawings and journals by Arthur Pinajian in a garage and attic. Peter Hastings Falk valued the works. He once appraised art from the Andy Warhol estate.
Some pieces already have sold for $500,000. Fifty of his landscapes are currently on exhibit at Manhattan's Fuller Building.
A recently published book by art historian William Innes Homer calls Pinajian's abstractions among the best of his era.
The run-down bungalow and one-car garage were purchased in 2007 for around $300,000.