Last summer, someone scored an original painting by David Bowie at a thrift store in Ontario. The unidentified buyer paid $5 for the artwork, titled DHead XLVI. The painting is currently up for auction with a high bid of $18,000. From the Globe and Mail:
"She was taken by the painting itself at first," said Rob Cowley, of the Toronto auction house Cowley Abbott, referring to the mystery owner. "Then she saw the printed label on the back that identified it as a work by David Bowie.[…]
DHead XLVI is from Bowie's Dead Head series of portraits of friends, family members and bandmates painted from 1995 to '97. Self-portraits were also part of the series – one of which sold at auction in Glasgow for £22,500 in 2016.
Bowie's signature has been independently verified by a London-based expert. According to the Toronto auctioneers, there are "no issues" with the canvas. "The frame has a few scrapes and scratches," said Cowley, "which is not uncommon with a work that has not been hanging on a wall."
