Im meeting a retired couple who relocated here to be close to family. It was that move, or rather the downsizing that preceded it, that brought this inheritance surprise to light. My names don camp. I dont know a thing about art, and i doubt youll disagree when you hear about the two paintings that sat in my basement for years. Don, phyllis, im jamie. Jamie, glad to meet you. You have a beautiful home. Don and phylliss story starts a few years back in 2011, when don retires from his job as an electrical engineer in upstate new york. Oh, they have all sorts of plans. They want to downsize. They want to travel the world, see their daughter in taiwan and work with Christian Charities in africa. And they want to be closer to their grandchildren in denver. So don and phyllis sell their house. How long had you been in that house . About 20 years. We had accumulated a lot of stuff. With the move date looming, phyllis assigns don the unpleasant task of going through the basement. We had a path with boxes on both sides. It was a challenge. Its there that don rediscovers two paintings, draped under a bed sheet. Both of them were probably the same vintage, probably 1920s, in their original frames. I knew about the paintings down there, because id covered them up with a sheet. Did you know how you and your husband had obtained them . They came from dons parents, so thats all i knew. Don inherited the paintings from his mother, lillian camp, who had died 21 years earlier in 1990. We werent fond of them, and so they ended up in the basement. One of them is titled arizona desert. One was a landscape scene from the southwest. It was a nice mountain scene. Didnt have any particular meaning to us, though. Eh. The other is titled ruth. Its a woman standing by a doorway and a wall, and you cant make out her features very well. And in the foreground is a pillar with a vine running up the side of it. And thats about it. You wanted them out. I even mentioned throwing them in the dumpster. But phyllis figures a charity will take them. I said, well, i guess the Salvation Army is as good as anyplace. We dont want them. Dons about to give em away, but hesitates. Did you think they were valuable . Had no idea. So i wanted to contact our local auctioneer and get an opinion. That local auctioneer is david mapes, in vestal, new york, just west of binghamton. Don sticks the paintings in the back of his van and calls david on his cell. What were you thinking . Well, i see a lot of paintings come in on the back of cars, so i wasnt real excited. Dons not getting his hopes up, either. If this doesnt pan out, his next stop the Salvation Army, that is, if he doesnt pass a dumpster along the way. Then he opens the hatch to show the auctioneer. What happened . They were laid out in the back of my minivan. And his mouth kind of dropped open. I remember his words. He said, thats just a painting. This other one is art. But first, our strange inheritance quiz question. Grant woods American Gothic is one of the most recognized paintings in the world. Whom did wood use as his models . His plumber and the plumbers wife, his sister and his dentist, or his own parents . The answer after the break. Hey, searching for a great used car . I dont want one thats had a big wreck just say, show me cars with no accidents reported find the cars you want, avoid the ones you dont plus you get a free carfax® report with every listing i like it start your used car search at carfax. Com so, whom did painter grant wood recruit as the models for his iconic painting, American Gothic . Its b. Wood chose his sister and his dentist to be the farmer and daughter depicted in the painting. Retirees don and phyllis camp are busy packing for their move from upstate new york to denver, colorado, when they decide to get rid of two paintings don inherited from his mother decades ago. They were not our favorite. [ chuckles ] if wed fallen in love with them, then i think it would have been a different story. On a lark, don takes them down the road to local estate appraiser david mapes. First, david eyeballs that southwestern landscape. It was a pleasant picture. Pleasant . Yeah. Then the appraiser takes a good, long look at the woman in the red shawl. While the appraiser is staring at that painting, don is staring at the appraiser. And his mouth kind of dropped open. It just knocked my socks off. Right in the parking lot . It just spoke to me. Its just one woman. You cant see her face. Its covered with a shawl. This simple, plain, exciting scene of this woman. They bring the paintings inside so david can look up the signatures on his computer database. First, he types in the signature on that pleasant western landscape. Karl hoerman, a german artist. Did he tell you what he thought that one was worth . Maybe 800. Nothing to sneeze at. Then david examines the picture of the woman in the red shawl. In the lower lefthand corner, a signature Victor Higgins. Victor higgins. How much did you know . I never heard of him before. Turns out, the guys work sells for big bucks. One of his paintings sold at sothebys for over 400,000. He appeals to the modern aesthetics, not only back then, but specifically today. Mark sublette, an authority on western painting, knows all about Victor Higgins. Born on a farm in indiana in 1884, thartist leaves home as a teenager and studies painting at the Art Institute of chicago. In 1913, hes one of Many American artists blown away by an International Exhibition of modern art called the armory show. You had all these cubist and impressionistic paintings coming from europe. And it really shook up the entire art world. The staggered american artists, including higgins, resolve to develop their own modern styles. So several artists from around the country converge in taos, new mexico at the time, a sleepy southwestern pueblo. We have crystalclear, blue skies with wonderful light penetration. Its a perfect setup for a colony, and that was exactly what happened. They establish the taos society of artists. Higgins travels to taos and becomes a member. His southwest paintings are a hit with his wealthy, bigcity patrons. Higgins makes most of his money sending paintings from taos to chicago and new york. His work becomes even more popular after his death in 1949. Back in upstate new york, appraiser david mapes shares the news with don camp. That painting he was ready to toss in a dumpster is a big deal. Its an unknown painting. It just popped up, and here it is. I said to him, this is a very valuable painting, and he said, how valuable . I said, well, its going to sell for over 100,000. I was amazed. Thats a good number. [ chuckles ] yes. What did you think would happen . I had no idea. I was just glad that they were out of the house. [ both laugh ] keep in mind, don and phyllis are busy clearing out their house for the move to denver. N esnt think twice about leaving both pntings wh his eager new acquaintance. He wasnt counting on it being worth anything, so its gonna be christmas, whatever it brings. But before david can put a painting that he hopes is worth six figures on the market, discriminating buyers will need to know a lot more. They may be fakes or frauds. Thats the first thing as a dealer is it real . cause often, theyre not. Heres another quiz question for you. Whats the name of the desert in Southern New Mexico . Is it the chihuahuan, coyote, or Sonoran Desert . The answer when we return. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. So, whats the name of the desert in Southern New Mexico . Its a, the chihuahuan desert, which extends into west texas. In upstate new york, don and phyllis camp learn from their local estate appraiser that one of two paintings inherited from dons mother might be worth 100,000 bucks or more. It was good news. Its this portrait of an elusive pueblo woman, signed by the prominent taos School ArtistVictor Higgins. Its a very good field to be selling into, because a lot of collectors love that type of painting. First, david mapes has to appraise and authenticate the painting for auction. There are three notations on the back, written in pencil the name ruth, Victor Higgins, and 600. And if you think about it, that was quite a bit of money back then. After decades in a dusty basement, mapes has a name and a purchase price. But he still needs to know how ruth got into the hands of dons family. David asked me, whats the story behind this painting . I talked to my brother. We agreed that it must have come from our great uncle, curtis. Why do you think he would have been interested in southwestern art . Well, uncle curtis was a corporate attorney, as i understand, and he was on the board of the chicago Art Institute. Where Victor Higgins studied. The appraiser concludes the painting is authentic and was likely painted in the 1920s. He knows hes about to stun the art world. Youre like in the outskirts of new york. Youre not in manhattan. Youre not in the southwest. This is not your expertise. For the most part, we do estates. Whenever somebody passes away, we go and take everything out that we can sell. We often find treasures in there, but not like this. It had everything going for it. And when he sharehisfindingse learns theres even more reason to love this painting. It turns out that ruth is a rather special lady. Thats because after the 1920s, higgins switched his focus from painting human figures to landscapes. Higgins quit doing paintings with figures. Quite frankly, the pieces that are going to demand the most value in todays market are the ones with figures. For example, this higgins landscape sold for 130,000 in 2005. But a higgins similar to ruth, entitled four shawled women, sold at sothebys for more than three times that amount, over 400 grand. That would be quite a payday. But remember, don and phyllis stuck the painting in their dusty basement for years. The canvas was a bit saggy, a little bit loose. There was quite a bit of cracking in the paint. Im thinking, well, okay, maybe itll draw 100,000. Little does he know, mapes gets a far bigger offer for ruth even before he advertises the auction. Davids on the road when a top dealer reaches him on his cellphone. He said, i want to make you an offer before the auction. I pulled over. I said, whats your offer . He said, 300,000. Impressive. [ chuckles ] exactly what i said. Even a small auction house in the middle of new york countryside, within a few weeks, it was apparent that everybody knew about it. Mark sublette isnt surprised that bigcity dealers would circle around the smalltown auction house. Generally, a painting like thats gonna go to one of the major auction houses. And as dealers, we hope that we might be able to get a bargain, quite frankly. Did you call don . No, but things are going through my mind. If he wants to pay 300,000, then other people are going to pay more. I thought about it for a short period of time, and i said, no. Thats risky, isnt it . It could be, but i was so confident in this picture and the market for it. Next lot is the higgins. So, is the smalltown auctioneer in over his head . Okay. Will savvy dealers paint him into a corner . Or will ruth provide a windfall to a couple in their golden years . Okay, we have 50,000 to start. Wholl do 60,000 . Whats your strange inheritance story . Wed love to tell it. Send me an email or go to our website, strangeinheritance. Com. Finally. Hey ron theyre finally taking down that schwab billboard. Oh, not so fast, carl. Oh no. Schwab, again . Index investing for that low . Thats three times less than fidelity. And four times less than vanguard. Whats next, no minimums . No minimums. Schwab has lowered the cost of investing again. Introducing the lowest cost index funds in the industry with no minimums. I bet theyre calling about the schwab news. Schwab. A modern approach to wealth management. Now back to strange inheritance. A Victor Higgins painting entitled ruth is headed for auction. Art dealers are intrigued that a work by the famous Taos Society Artist has turned up out of the blue, or, in this case, out of the basement. As a dealer, we love to get pieces that are oneowner, family. It makes it more special. Its don and phyllis camps strange and rather ironic inheritance. In their own words, they never cared much for ruth. What is it you dnt like . The lady looked very sad, ke she was floundering. It left me with an empty feeling. Listen, art is in the eye of the beholder. Thats right. Shes very lonely. Im not a lonely person. But the lonely figure of ruth is precisely why an arizona art collector named ray harvey is so excited about the painting. The thing about higgins the figures are very rare, very hard to come by, and very much in demand. You were committed from the minute you saw the image . Pretty much. You could say ray has a special interest in ruth. He purchased that similar higgins, entitled four shawled women, from a private seller in 2008 for more than half a million bucks. Was there extra intrigue because no one had seen ruth . Definitely. Its just so nice when a painting like that comes up undiscovered. Ray will be out of the country when ruth goes up on the block. He makes plans to watch the auction online from a hotel in positano, italy, and bid by phone. As it happens, don camp and his wife, phyllis, wont be there, either. Theyre visiting their daughter in taiwan. Did you tell your daughter, oh, by the way, while were here, were auctioning these two very ugly paintings we cant wait to unload . [ laughs ] yes. We had 10 people on the telephones, fielding bids, and then we had a number of people in the audience. Others are booting up their computers, like ray harvey in positano, where its 1 00 a. M. Youre always nervous about auctions, especially when youre buying something sight unseen. Are you already logged onto the internet . Well, tried to. Couldnt get on. The connection was bad, and im thinking, i sure hope they can get through to me. Then, just before the bidding gets under way, ray connects by phone with the auction house in upstate new york. What if the phone hadnt gone through . Its unfortunate. You would just miss out. Guys like myself, i guess the chase is a big part of it. The first one is the lot 97, the karl hoerman. First, a warmup the other painting that don inherited, entitled desert landscape. Margaret buys it at 1,100, 161. It sells for a morethanexpected 1,100. Is that an omen for ruth, who don and phyllis considered donating to the Salvation Army, if they didnt just throw her out . Everybody on the phones . I asked for an opening bid, and it opened at 50,000. Okay. We have 50,000 to start. Wholl do 60,000 . The dealer who offered david mapes 300k a month before the auction is there and still eager to bid. So is ray harvey. 70,000. We have 80,000 in the back. Now 90,000. 90,000. They had quite a bit of action on it. Do you remember your first bid . It was 300,000. I have 300,000. Okay, we have 300,000. That would have been a good price . That would have been a steal. Can i get 310,000 . No ones getting a steal today. 320,000. 330,000. It keeps on climbing, past 400k, 450,000. We get up to 500,000. Anyone drop out at that point . Oh, yeah, a lot of people did. It was down to ray harvey, plus the floor bidder. Did you ever consider stopping . You know, there is a point we all have to stop. But no. 640,000s bid. 650,000. We have 650,000 on the phone from italy. Going once, going twice. Is the camera ready for this . [ laughter ] [ crowd cheering ] sold to the arizona art lover ray harvey. You want the total number . Sure, why not . 650,000. Im gonna fall off my chair. Okay. [ both laugh ] thats about what i did. I had no concept, no concept, that it was worth that much. Holy smokes. S of now, thats the third highest pricthat his paintings have ever sold for. Victor higgins enigmatic painting of ruth darn near ended up in a dumpster. Well, i think the main thing i like about it is the color and the simplicity of the woman. Ray will soon loan ruth to various museums, but today, she lives in his entryway, looking every bit the masterpiece. And the condition to this day after so many years in a basement, under a bed sheet. Its an amazing story. And i refer a lot to paintings that are collectionmakers, you know . This would be considered a collectionmaker. Heres my wedding. As for don and phyllis, that unexpected windfall courtesy of ruth, gives them a onceinalifetime opportunity to make a charitable donation bigger than they ever imagined. They fund the completion of a well for a needy community in africa. We gave 1 4 of it to a Christian Mission in kenya so that that well could be completed. Thats spectacular. What did you buy for yourself . We bought a new car. That was all. A ferrari . No. A honda odyssey. Youre so sweet, phyllis. We were just grateful. Turns out, don isnt the only one in the camp family who inherited a painting that once belonged to old uncle curtis. His big brother also got one by another prominent taos artist named walter ufer. The difference is dons brother actually liked his, so much so its been hanging in his home for half a century. Im jamie colby. Thanks for watching strange inheritance. And remember you cant take it with you. You want thrills, youll get them all at the roller derby. Talk about hell on wheels shes the paragon, the symbol for roller derby. I wear hot pants all the time. She was a star. I mean, theres no doubt about it. A star who leaves an attic full of roller derby history. Let me see this. Theyre very, very, very small. To her lifelong fan. This is anns last jersey. Why did she leave you her inheritance . The answer its a little tricky. Whoopsy. [ laughs ] [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] im jamie colby in San Francisco today, home of the bay bombers. If you know that is the most storied franchise in roller derby, then you watch too much saturday morning tv. And if you dont know what im talking about, no worries just strap on your helmet because you are in for a rollicking good time. My name is Jim Fitzpatrick, and when one of my childhood idols died in 2006, she left me hundreds of her mementos from her roller derby career. Hi, im jamie. Hi, jamie. Nice to meet you. Im jim. Inside