AI Helps ID Thrift Store Painting as $254K Cadell

A painting bought for under $100 at a thrift store in White Plains, N.Y., sixty years ago by Helene Plotkin has sold at auction for 189,200 pounds (approximately $254,000) after being identified with the help of artificial intelligence. Plotkin, who has an undergraduate degree in art, was drawn to the Fauvist-style work with bold colors and brushwork. The painting, depicting a woman in black in a domestic setting with bright blue and orange hues, hung on her wall until December 2025. Using an AI chatbot, she discovered it was an original by Scottish Colorist F.C.B. Cadell. The attribution was later verified by art appraisers. The work sold to a private buyer this month. Plotkin, 88, had long sensed a "regal feeling" in the portrait but never suspected its true value. The case highlights AI's potential to democratize object identification, traditionally reliant on expert human eyes.