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Man Purchased 'Ugly Painting' for $4 Shocked After Finding 'Perfectly Preserved Declaration of Independence' Document Worth Millions Behind It

After getting the 'ugly painting', the man took it apart, and behind the frame, he found a folded-up document inside an envelope.

BY SOMDATTA MAITY

PUBLISHED NOV 1, 2024

Declaration Of Independence, American History (Cover Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by bonniej)

An anonymous man struck the lottery when he unknowingly bought the first printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence for just $4 from a Pennsylvania flea market in 1989. The unidentified man was a collector who got drawn to a beautiful frame in the market, The New York Times reported. He decided to buy the frame, even though he was not particularly keen on the 'dismal' painting it contained.

Created 1776, The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776. The Declaration explained why the Thirteen Colonies at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states no longer under British rule. With the Declaration these new states took a collective first step toward forming the United States of America. The declaration was signed by representatives from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by Douglas Sacha) — Created in 1776, The United States Declaration of Independence is the pronouncement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776.
(Image Source: Getty Images/Photo by Douglas Sacha)

After getting the 'ugly painting' in his ownership, the man took it apart, My Modern Met reported. Behind the frame, he found a folded-up document, placed in an envelope. Initially, he had no clue regarding the value of the document, but believing it to be a good find decided to keep it in his possession.

"[H]e kept the declaration, which he had found behind the painting," David Redden, who helped sell the document at auction shared. "It was folded up, about the size of a business envelope. He thought it might be an early 19th-century printing and worth keeping as a curiosity."

The man showed the document to a friend in 1991, who urged him to take it to an expert, The New York Times reported. He contacted Sotheby's, who made the revelation.

"The discovery of any first-printing copy of the declaration, even a fragmentary one or a poor copy, would be exciting," Selby Kiffer, an American printing specialist said regarding the value of the document. "But on this one, the condition is beyond reproach. It was folded up when we first saw it -- the way the owner said it was in the painting, less than one-tenth of an inch thick. I had to agree with him it was just as well that he kept it that way."

Kiffer further added that the document had gone through no restoration or repair, and also was unbacked, The New York Times reported. Only seven of the total 24 copies are unbacked, which in his opinion, increased the document's value.

The happiness of winning (Representative Image Source: Pexels | Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko)

These documents were dispersed to spread the news of Independence, Kiffer explained. "The ink was still wet on this copy when it was folded," he added. "The very first line -- 'In Congress, July 4, 1776' -- shows up in the bottom margin in reverse, as a faint offsetting or shadow printing, one more proof of the urgency John Dunlap, the printer, and others felt in dispersing this document." In the 20th century, several of these dispersed documents reappeared and sold for huge value in auctions.

In 1991, this first printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence found in the Pennsylvania flea market was sold at $2.2 million (about $5 million today) in the auction, My Modern Met reported. In 2000, the document was again sold for $7.4 million (about $13 million today).