A pricey Spanish painting’s brief life as curbside trash has come to an end. Police say a Joaquín Sorolla seascape valued at more than $170,000 vanished in Seville after its owners accidentally left it on the street while packing for a beach trip, per the Guardian. Enter Andrés Hurtado, 57, who says he scooped up the painting, which he assumed had been discarded as trash, only for its ornate gold frame. “To be honest, I didn’t even look at the painting,” he says, per Euronews, adding that he shoved the frame in a shopping bag and headed back to his hotel.
Unaware that the owners were appealing for the return of “a painting of great sentimental value,” Hurtado took the work home to Murcia, 325 miles away. Only then did he become curious about the painting itself. The unemployed former supermarket employee ran the image through AI, then an auction house, and learned it might be an original Sorolla, which could fetch “some crazy prices.” He says the auction house offered him thousands of euros to turn over the piece. But when he saw news reports about the “stolen” work, he decided on honesty, calling police to say he’d simply “picked it up in the street.” The painting is now back with the family, who’ve promised Hurtado a modest thank-you gift.