The director of the Historical Dept. of the LDS church recently told me a story that someone "had found" a painting by Minerva Teichert in their garage... whaaaaat?! "Found?" And this wasn't a little sketch in a box... this was a major painting of Christ blessing the children at the bountiful Temple in 3 Nephi, 48" x 54" in size. Imagine having something like this in your garage with a leaky roof and bicycles and junk pushed up against it?!Our labor of love was to clean it, stabilize any deterioration (stop flaking and reduce cracks), varnish etc. The final result should be a painting that you will see in the future in many publications, posters etc. Maybe you'll even get a copy of it for your meeting house? You heard about it first, here... at the moment of its discovery and saving conservation efforts.
Value? Given the prosperity in the church (hungry buyers in an auction?) and the rarity of such great paintings I would guess at least $1 million... but that's just a guess. I haven't shown you the whole painting in the photo because of copyright issues.
