SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A rare, lost Jackson Pollock painting is going up for auction on Tuesday, June 20 at J. Levine Auction & Appraisal after the Scottsdale-based auction house spent nearly 18 months and tens of thousands of dollars researching and authenticating the forensics and ownership history. Online bidding is available now, with live bidding slated to begin at 11 a.m. PT on June 20. The auction house is located at 10345 N. Scottsdale Rd., in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
 
 The abstract, untitled gouache painting measures 22 ½ x 32 inches with a forensic report stating, among other findings, that "the dating of the painting to the mid-twentieth century is well established as no pigments or binding media introduced in the late 1950s and 1960s have been detected. Furthermore, the artist's working materials and painting technique are illuminated." The full forensic report is available. 
 
 The painting also comes with strong provenance, having come from the estate of Jenifer Gordon (Cosgriff) and bequeathed to her half-brother, who resides in an Arizona retirement community. Gordon (Cosgriff) lived in New York and was a known, lifelong friend of Clement Greenberg, an influential visual art critic most closely associated with American Modern art of the mid-20th century, Hazel Guggenheim McKinley, a mid-20th century modern artist and sister of Peggy Guggenheim, and Jackson Pollock. In addition, she also was in possession of various notable and listed art including authenticated pieces by Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Hazel Guggenheim McKinley and Cora Kelley Ward. 
 
 "Interestingly, this estate first came to our attention when we were contacted to take a look at a signed 1992 L.A. Lakers poster," said Josh Levine, owner and CEO of J. Levine Auction & Appraisal. "We ended up signing a contract to auction the contents of the estate, and that's when we found many of the paintings stored away." 
 
 One of the finds, a Kenneth Noland diamond-shaped acrylic painting titled "Replace!," caught the attention of art collectors when J. Levine auctioned it in January 2016. A phone bidder from New Jersey won the piece for $110,000 hammer price. The Olitski, Ward and McKinley sold in the same auction. 
 
 Since January 2016, Josh Levine has been on a quest to authenticate the unsigned Pollock. Describing his initial research as "maddening," Levine hired a private investigative team and a forensic expert to help him put the pieces of the puzzle together. 
 
 "Based on their work and findings, I believe this painting was one of Pollock's missing gouaches in his catalogue raisonné or from the period of 1945 to 1949," Levine said. 
 
 Levine is well aware that scholars debate about the authenticity of Pollock paintings. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation does not authenticate paintings, and there have been many high-profile disputes in the past regarding whether or not a painting was an original Pollock. 
 
 "The forensic report really just reaffirmed what I already believed to be true based on the provenance," Levine said. "I've spent hundreds of hours researching how this Pollock could end up here in Arizona, and I am confident that this is an original Pollock." 
 
 For more information, visit www.jlevines.com or call (480) 496-2212. 
 
 SOURCE J. Levine Auction & Appraisal ||||| CLOSE Josh Levine talks about an original Jackson Pollock painting, June 6, 2017, in a conference room at J. Levine Auction and Appraisal in Scottsdale. Levine expects the painting to sell for between $10 million and $15 million. Mark Henle/azcentral.com 
 
 Josh Levine with an original Jackson Pollock painting, June 6, 2017, at J. Levine Auction and Appraisal, 10345 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale. Levine expects the painting to sell between $10 million and $15 million. (Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic) 
 
 Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of this story misidentified where the painting was found inside the home. 
 
 Jackson Pollock spent nearly all of his youth in Arizona and California. He even left a tiny bit of himself in Phoenix, close to what is now Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. 
 
 The 20th-century artist, internationally known for abstract, splatter and "drip" paintings, became a sensation in the New York art world starting in the 1940s until his death in 1956. 
 
 So how is it that one of Pollock's paintings might have found its way into a Sun City garage? 
 
 Josh Levine, owner and founder of J. Levine Auction & Appraisal LLC, said that he received a phone call from a Sun City resident, asking his firm to look at Los Angeles Lakers memorabilia that was signed by longtime star Kobe Bryant. 
 
 What they found in addition seemed to be a proverbial treasure chest of 20th-century modern art, including works that appear to be created by Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Cora Kelley Ward and Pollock. 
 
 Did he have a Pollock in hand? The possibility captured Levine's interest. Knowing how common fraud is in the art world, he says he spent more than $50,000 on forensics reports and private investigators to trace the lineage of the piece. 
 
 A journey from New York to Sun City 
 
 Levine walked through the connection from Pollock to the Sun City homeowner, whose name is not being released. Levine said he was a patient at an assisted-living facility and was being represented by a person with power of attorney over his estate. 
 
 "As we went through the pieces, we saw that every single one of these artists were from the same social circle as Clement Greenberg," Levine said of the garage treasure trove. 
 
 Greenberg was a well-known American modern art critic and essayist in New York in the mid-20th century. 
 
 "If he said you were great, then you were great," Levine said. 
 
 Greenberg also is known as an early promoter of Pollock's work. 
 
 Levine said that the paintings were bequeathed to the Sun City homeowner by his sister, Jenifer Gordon, a close friend of Greenberg and Peggy Guggenheim, an art collector and socialite also important in promoting Pollock's work. 
 
 Barbara McKay, an Australian artist who was friends with Gordon and Greenberg and lived in New York in the early 1980s, said she knew that Gordon had received a Pollock sometime during her life. 
 
 "I knew that Jenifer had a Pollock and, as confident as I could be, given that photographs are never as clear as seeing the painting in the flesh, that this is the original painting," McKay said in an email to The Arizona Republic. 
 
 The forensics report, done by Peter Paul Biro, said that the paint on the alleged Pollock contained no pigments or binding that was introduced after Pollock's death. 
 
 This revelation, combined with information provided by private investigators hired by Levine, left no doubt in his mind that he was in possession of the real deal. 
 
 "I'm brave enough to call it a Jackson Pollock and put my entire reputation on it," Levine said. 
 
 The Noland that Levine found, titled "Replace!," sold for $110,000 in early 2016. 
 
 Auction set for June 20 in Scottsdale 
 
 Levine, who is auctioning the Pollock piece at his auction house in Scottsdale on June 20, expects it to sell for at least $10 million. 
 
 "The owner of the painting had no idea what he had. He said to me, 'I didn't even know who he (Pollock) was until you told me about him,' " Levine said. 
 
 "It just doesn't get any better than that. I'm almost sad that these past 18 months of research are going to be over," Levine said. 
 
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– What does Kobe Bryant have to do with the possible discovery of a "lost" Jackson Pollock painting? Something, it turns out. An Arizona auction house says it was contacted by a Sun City resident who wanted someone to take a look at a 1992 LA Lakers poster signed by Bryant. "We ended up signing a contract to auction the contents of the estate, and that's when we found many of the paintings," among them one that Josh Levine of J. Levine Auction & Appraisal believed to be a Pollock. The Arizona Republic reports Levine was so intrigued by the potential Pollock that he spent more than $50,000 over 18 months in an attempt to establish it was done by the artist's hand. "I'm brave enough to call it a Jackson Pollock and put my entire reputation on it," he says. Still, Levine acknowledges potential Pollocks have long been a source of art-world consternation; the Pollock-Krasner Foundation does not authenticate Pollock paintings. But in a press release, the auction house describes the painting's provenance as "strong": The man who owned it—he had never heard of Pollock—was given the gouache painting by his half-sister, who was a longtime friend of an art critic who knew Pollock. The auction house further explains forensic tests established "the dating of the painting to the mid-twentieth century ... as no pigments or binding media introduced in the late 1950s and 1960s have been detected." The work, which measures 22.5 x 32 inches, will be auctioned June 20; Levine expects it will fetch $10 million to $15 million. (A painting made by a 21-year-old in 1982 recently sold for $110 million.)