Art found in NY garage appraised at $30M

BELLPORT, N.Y. (AP) — Works by an obscure Armenian-American abstract impressionist discovered in a New York cottage have been appraised at $30 million.

In 2007, the new owner of a bungalow in Bellport, on Long Island, found thousands of paintings, drawings and journals by Arthur Pinajian in a garage and attic. News 12 Long Island says Peter Hastings Falk valued the works. He once appraised art from the Andy Warhol estate.

Some pieces already have sold for $500,000. Fifty of his landscapes are currently on exhibit at Manhattan's Fuller Building.

A recently published book by art historian William Innes Homer calls Pinajian's abstractions among the best of his era.

The run-down bungalow and one-car garage were purchased for around $300,000 in 2007.