DISCOVERED: $15.3M Painting

Alice's heart was heavy with grief and regret after the recent loss of her father. She couldn't help but feel guilty about the argument they had before his passing, especially since they had been arguing about her older brother, Jacob, which was always a sensitive subject. Alice couldn't understand why her father was so insistent on seeing Jacob, who had ostracized the family years ago. Even after all this, Jacob never showed for their father's funeral.

Alice was bartending while putting herself through law school. She was overwhelmed with cleaning out her father's house and finalizing his affairs, responsibilities that had fallen on her since Jacob was nowhere to be found.

Alice was three hours into her evening shift when the rush started to slow down. That’s when a man wearing a light brown leather jacket and fitted dark grey slacks walked up to the bar. He had a kind smile and a genuine tone to his voice. As he took a seat at the bar, he ordered a whiskey sour and sat for a few minutes enjoying his drink. He pulled a $20 bill from his wallet and placed it under the glass.

"Forgive me, is your name Alice?" he confirmed.

"Yes?" She replied.

"Jacob - well, Hammer had asked me to hand deliver this letter to you."

"Hammer?" She nervously replied.

She reached for the envelope and was shocked to find ‘Alice’ written in her father's handwriting.

Alice's father was known as Hammer, an old nickname that followed him around due to a phrase he had coined, "When life gets tough, take a hammer to it".

Alice opened the letter. Three words were all that were written... "Hammer the wall."

Alice holding back her tears; "Not many people know this, but my father's real name is Jacob. He even named my good-for-nothing brother Jacob. Family name and all."

“I’m sorry for your loss," said the man.

"Thank you," replied Alice.

“I hope you find peace. I wish you well," the man said as he turned and left.

Confused and frustrated, Alice kept looking at the three words over and over. What wall was Hammer referring to?

She remembered the last argument she had with her father. Hammer had digressed from their normal back and forth over Jacob to random situations that Alice couldn’t make sense of. Books that were lost, wars, tearing down his bedroom wall, arsenic in carpets. But could this be what he's referring to? Tearing down hi bedroom wall? No, that’s ridiculous. Hammer the Wall. HAMMER the wall. Hammer THE wall. Hammer the WALL. Hammer the wall. What does this mean? Is it his bedroom wall? No, that’s silly.

Curiosity got to Alice. She drove to her father's house the next morning and took a hammer to his bedroom wall. On the first hit - nothing. Second hit - nothing. Third and fourth hits - nothing. Alice stepped back and took a look at the now wall that resembled whac-a-mole. Frustrated, she threw the hammer as hard as she could. Clink! A low metal clink sound came from the wall. There's something there. Frantically tearing down the sheetrock revealed a metal door almost eight feet tall and four feet wide, sealed shut. Alice turned the handle and pulled, struggling to get it open. Slowly, the door started to give way. Ticking and low humming filled the air as soft lighting started to switch on, and the room began to illuminate.

"No fucking way," exclaimed Alice in disbelief.

The door opened to a room that was painted in light gray. Across the room, directly in front of Alice, was a large painting taking up almost the entire wall. Alice hardly noticed the small canary yellow sitting couch that was in the room and bumped against it. On the couch, a journal labeled "The Stone Breakers." Alice began flipping through the journal, reading names, dates, lineage, history. Looking up at the painting in wonder and then back to reading page after page.

Page 51. "Not all paintings were lost to the Nazis. The Stone Brakers painted in 1849 by a French painter, Gustave Courbe, was thought to be destroyed during World War II when a transport vehicle moving art to the castle of Königstein was bombed. The painting was never on the truck."

Alice giggling as tears fell over her cheeks; “Take a HAMMER to it! HA!”