We’ve all heard the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but who would have considered this trash in the first place? A painting by David Bowie, titled D HEAD XLVI, was found at Machar municipal landfill, about 60 kilometres south of North Bay.

 

Luckily the piece wasn’t just tossed into the trash heap but rather found its way to a donation centre near the entrance of the dump a few months ago where the current owner bought it for just five dollars. The owner chooses to remain anonymous, but did say that she found a label on the back of the artwork that clearly identifies it for what it is. She held onto it for a few months and did some research about the piece before contacting Cowley Abbott Fine Art in Toronto, who got in touch with Andy Peters, an expert in the field of David Bowie’s signature (where was that area of study when I was applying to college). Peters confirmed that the piece was, in fact, authentic.

 

Rob Cowley, president of Cowley Abbot Fine Art, pegs the valuation for the painting to be anywhere from $9,000 to $12,000, but also added that other paintings by Bowie have gone for over $30,000 in recent auctions. At time of writing, the current bid is just over $22,000, which isn’t half bad for a $5 investment at a dump donation centre.

 

If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go root around my local dump and hope I find more than a family of raccoons living in a decrepit couch.

Filed under: art, david-bowie, dump, north-bay, painting