AI Appraiser Turns $100 Thrift Painting into $250,000 Sale
Source: NYT > Business (paywall)
Google's Gemini identified a lost work by 19th-century artist Frits Thaulow hidden in a $100 estate-sale find. AI-powered image recognition is moving expertise out of the hands of auction houses and specialists. The shift isn't the romance of discovery—it's access. Anyone with a smartphone can now verify and price assets without appraisers, galleries, or dealers. That changes how provenance and pricing get set, and potentially unlocks value in household collections that gatekeepers once controlled.