Found at a yard sale outside Boston, an antique collector bought a drawing for $30 in 2016. The sellers—the heirs of Jean-Paul Carlhian, an architect—believed the drawing was a reproduction. This is the first previously unknown Dürer drawing to have come to public attention in fifty years. It is in an antique frame.

Jean-Paul Carlhian was a graduate of the Paris Ecole des Beaux Arts. He designed buildings for Harvard University and the Smithsonian. His family ran an antiques gallery in Paris. It is believed the family’s gallery, Maison Carlhian, bought the Dürer in 1919 from Count Hubert de Pourtalès who owned several Dürers.

A paper conservator who recently evaluated the Dürer drawing found it was on the trident-watermarked paper typically used by Dürer. The drawing also had the “AD” monogram used by Dürer. Analysis showed that the monogram and the drawing were done using the same ink.

The drawing’s authenticity has also been confirmed by two European museum curators.