Pinajian’s work hangs on the well-lit walls of a SoHo gallery. Leading art historians say that, at his best, he ranks among America’s finest abstract expressionists. His estate has been appraised at $30 million. After several kind twists of fates, Pinajian has been vaulted out of obscurity and is now gaining improbable posthumous fame.

The first twist came with a real estate venture by a man named Thomas Schultz. It was 2005 when Schultz stumbled upon the cottage in Bellport, New York that was the longtime home of Pinajian and his sister.

“I came into the house to look at it with the purpose of figuring out if it was a good house to flip i.e. to buy and resell for profit and I walked among all of this art. I was intrigued by it because it was so vast. I knew what I was looking at was someone’s life’s work.”

For more on this story, visit: Armenian-American Artist Wins Posthumous Fame.