Her joke was no laughing matter, and the painting is now estimated to fetch as much as $250,000 at auction in September. According to specialists at Bonhams Skinner auction house, the seller unknowingly purchased the work at a Savers thrift store in Manchester, New Hampshire, while searching for frames to reuse. The Wyeth painting had been stashed against a wall along with mostly damaged posters and prints, according to the auction house. Bonhams Skinner auction house expects the painting to fetch between $150,000 and $250,000 at September's auction. Auction house specialists believe the publishing company Little, Brown and Company may have passed the work along to an editor or to the author’s estate.

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Persons: Wyeth, Skinner, Bonhams Skinner, Lauren Lewis, Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth, Lewis, ” Lewis, CNN Wyeth, Helen Hunt, Ramona, ”, Brown, Paul Allen’s, Andrew Wyeth’s Organizations: The Art, CNN, Boston Globe, Globe, Microsoft, Christie’s Locations: Maine, Manchester , New Hampshire, N.C, York