$10 Goodwill Buy: $15K Painting

During a visit to Goodwill, a North Carolina artist spotted two large abstract paintings selling for $10 each. That's a quarter of the price a brand new canvas would have cost Beth Feeback, and she figured she could easily paint over them with her subject of choice—cats with big eyes. Good thing she didn't: After Googling the name found on the frame of one painting at a fellow artist's recommendation, Feeback learned that Ilya Bolotowsky was actually a well-established 20th-century painter.

Feeback told Sotheby's about the find, and they said they'd be willing to auction it off—for an estimated price of $15,000 to $20,000, the Charlotte Observer reports. Now Feeback, whose own career hasn't been particularly lucrative, is eagerly awaiting the painting's planned Sept. 21 sale. (More art stories.)