A Tom Thomson painting picked up for just $50 at an East Vancouver garage sale was auctioned off for $110,000 Wednesday, a hefty price tag that still fell short of expectations for the serendipitous discovery.
Specialists estimated the small painting would net between $150,000 and $250,000, but a number of critics cast doubt on the artwork's authenticity and bidders proved hesitant to pay top dollar for the piece.
Other Thomson experts who had viewed the oil painting agreed it was created by the influential Canadian artist who inspired the legendary Group of Seven, however.
The buyer chose to remain anonymous.
It took months to confirm the painting's origins after it was brought in to Maynards Fine Art and Antiques for appraisal, but staff ultimately determined the depiction of Ontario's Algonquin Park had been created by Thomson in the spring or summer of 1915.
After cleaning, Thomson's signature became faintly visible in the bottom right corner.
The lucky original purchaser picked up the painting in January along with another work that also turned out to be a product of the Group of Seven: a 1901 watercolour cityscape by Frederick Horsman Valley.
A buyer bid $6,500 for that piece.
A few years ago, another unknown Thomas painting sold for $170,000 at auction after spending years hanging above a television in a New England home.
