Eleven days later, the owner sent pictures of the artwork through text to Mr. Schorer. According to Mr. Schorer, he immediately made his way to the man’s home, where he said the man and his wife had a simple life. Mr. Schorer took a seat at the kitchen table and began to study the object.
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He Asserted that it was either a Masterpiece or the Best Imitation He had ever seen.
Mr. Schorer, who specialises in finding lost art, gave the person a $100,000 advance so they could sell the drawing, according to him.
(The specific terms are confidential, but he indicated both parties will profit from the sale.) If the artwork turned out to be a fake, Mr. Schorer would lose his advance.
The Owner of the Drawing, Mr. Phillipson’s Buddy, Reportedly Declined to Comment.
Mr. Schorer flew to England three days later to rush the drawing to Jane McAusland, a paper conservator who counsels museums, dealers, and auction houses. This week, emails sent to her by The Times went unanswered.
Mr. Schorer recalled that three weeks after his visit, Ms. McAusland informed him that the drawing had been destroyed with tea or coffee to make it appear ancient. But when he asked her to take another look, she responded the following day via email with an image. When he clicked on it, a transparent light could be seen shining through the paper in the picture.
He observed, “It contained the trident watermark, which is exclusively found in Albrecht Dürer’s works. “I had my mind blown,”
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Dürer’s preferred medium was a special paper made by his sponsor, one of history’s richest men, Jacob Fugger.
According to Dürer specialist and head curator of the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Christof Metzger, only Dürer’s workshop had access to the paper, which bore Fugger’s signature watermark.
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