The Priceless Cat Painting Found In A Dumpster

A couple first saw two cat paintings in a dumpster while walking their dog in Wales. They were intrigued by the paintings in the trash and decided to bring them home as a gift. They decided that the art could be a fitting present for their daughter-in-law, who loves cats, BBC News reports. “After spending around a year in her home, she eventually gifted them back to us,” they added.

The couple, wondering how this valuable piece of art ended up in a dumpster, decided to learn more about the artist. They then discovered British artist Louis Wain had painted these two cat pieces, and they were worth thousands.

The couple arranged an auction with Rogers Jones Auctioneers, and the priceless cat paintings were sold for 16,000 euros. The first painting was of a blue cat in flowers, and the second contained a frontside, with cats staring at circles, and a backside, containing deer in a field. “He became famous for his whimsical paintings and illustrations of cats, which depicted them in surreal scenes or engaged in humanlike activities,” Elizabeth Heineman from Antique Trader says.

Wain did not earn much money from his paintings, and later on, he showed signs of a mental disorder. He went to the Bethlem Hospital, where many of his paintings still hang. His influence of making cats more popular was credited.

Surprisingly, both paintings, “Blue Cat Among the Flowers” and “Psychedelic Cats” on the back of “Deer in an Idyllic Landscape”, both were bought with a higher bid than their estimates. The couple has asked to remain anonymous. They “always joked [the paintings] might be worth something one day but never truly believed it,” BBC News reports.