Before She Died, This Grandmother Revealed Her Secret Fortune

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Before She Died, This Grandmother Revealed Her Secret Fortune

When our time comes and we have to leave our family behind, we hope that they'll be taken care of when we're gone.

You can scrimp and save as much as you like, but the truth is your children and grandchildren are grateful to receive anything. But by a stroke of luck, a $10 find on a London street market turned out to be worth millions for Jenny Verrastro's family.

Before Jenny passed away, she pulled her nephew Carl Sabatino aside to tell him something very important: she warned him to look underneath the antique sewing machine in the crawlspace of her house.

After she passed away, Carl followed her advice, starting a decade-long journey to find the truth.

Carl looked underneath the sewing machine and found an folder, with some British newspaper pages from the 1940s. Wrapped inside these pages was a small painting of a woman in a "fuzzy hat," which Carl remembered seeing in his aunt's home when he was just a boy.

But the part of the painting that caught Carl's eye was in the bottom corner: a signature from the world-famous painter Pablo Picasso.

This isn't even the first time a hidden Picasso has been uncovered, but Carl had to prove the value of this rare antique.

While anything by Picasso is worth a lot of money, proving it was genuinely painted by the artist was difficult. Since finding the painting in 2004, Carl interviewed experts and scientists, but his hard work finally paid off.

Click the next page to find out how much the painting is worth!

According to Carl, his uncle Nicky Verrastro bought the painting at a street market in London during the second world war for only £10. His own research suggested it was one of Picasso's only experiments with a new art technique called "gum bichrominate."

The first expert Carl took his painting to, from a New York auction house, threw the painting back into his lap and called it a "$10 poster," but his next results were more promising.

A scientist analysed the painting, saying that the paint is probably from the 1930s, which fits with Carl's story. There's also a thumbprint on the painting, which experts are trying to match to Picasso.

This painting may be studied for years to come, but one Picasso expert has already seen enough. He's valued the painting at $13 million, saying that he's convinced it's genuine.

Some antique collectors are surprised by how much their finds are worth, but Carl had to fight tooth and nail to prove this painting's value.

The greatest gift you can leave to the next generation of your family is a lifetime of happy memories, but a priceless painting by a famous artist is the next best thing!

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