Pensioner reveals she was once offered the gift of a Van Gogh masterpiece now worth £13million but chose a brass bell now worth £1 instead
- Gaye Horrell, 76, was offered the painting called Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse for free in 1967
- But she was persuaded by her in-laws at the time that it was 'not worth having'
- Instead, she bought a brass handbell worth little more than £1 at the time
- The Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece has now sold for an estimated £13m to a mystery bidder
A pensioner has admitted turning down a Van Gogh masterpiece worth £13m for a brass handbell worth a measly £1.
Gaye Horrell, 76, was offered the painting - entitled Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse - for free in 1967.
Speaking after the painting was sold at the The European Fine Art Fair in Holland to a mystery buyer last week, Gaye said she had been 'very naive' not to snap up the painting for nowt.
Gaye Horrell opted not to take the painting in 1967 even though she was offered it for free - it is now worth around £13m
The £13 million painting: Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse (1885) by Vincent Van Gogh
Although the price was kept under wraps when it sold, the painting, showing a peasant woman in a blue dress outside a ramshackle farmhouse and completed by Van Gogh in 1885, was estimated to sell for between £12m-£13m.
Now living in the Cotswolds, Gaye, who was married to Tim Holme at the time in Staffordshire, revealed how her in-laws Charles and Molly Holme asked if she wanted anything from their farmhouse before they held a sale.
She was offered the Van Gogh masterpiece, given to the Holme family in 1929 for payment for farm supplies, but despite liking the painting she was persuaded by her in-laws that it was 'not worth having.'
So instead she chose a brass handbell, worth little more than £1 at the time.
But after being told by her in-laws that the painting was 'not worth having, Mrs Horrell bought a simple brass handbell worth £1 at the time
The painting was sold in 1967 for just £4 to a local auction house and was next seen in a junk shop in north London, where it was bought for £45 by Luigi Grasso, who spotted the faint signature 'Vincent' on the painting.
He then researched the origins of the painting and it was eventually verified as an original by the Dutch master by Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
It sold for almost £100,000 in 1970, then to an American collector for £1.5m in 2001 and now has sold for an estimated £13m to a mystery bidder.
It could be one of the first paintings ever sold by Van Gogh (pictured) at the age of 33 - he died just four years later
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Speaking after the painting was sold last week, Mrs Horrell told The Shropshire Star newspaper she could have had the painting for free 53 years ago.
She said: 'In 1967 I was living in Stafford, married to Tim Holme, elder son of Charles Holme.
'My in-laws Charles and Molly Holme had the sale of household bits and pieces alongside the farm sale and I was told to choose something for myself beforehand.
'I saw the [Van Gogh] picture and immediately liked it. The painting looked old, very dirty and uncared for, and it had a hole in it, but I still liked it.
The painting was sold at the The European Fine Art Fair in Holland last week and Mrs Horrell has since said it was 'very naive' not to claim the painting
'They persuaded me it was not worth having and not to bother with it.'
She added: 'As I was advised not to bother I have seen various articles about its life after the sale, but there was not a lot I could do.
'Oh dear, how very naive of me. Of course, in those days I couldn't argue with them and ended up with a brass handbell. I learnt my lesson the hard way.'
