When North Carolina resident Beth Feeback bought a painting for $9.99 at a Goodwill store, she had no idea she’d just scored a valuable work of art. Turns out, the painting was by a notable New York-based abstract artist and was worth in the range of $20,000.

According to Feeback, the painting was one of two that she purchased for under ten bucks each. Initially, she wasn’t impressed with the works of art and meant to paint over them. Feeback is an artist herself who specializes in — get this — pet portraits.

“I didn’t like them as paintings,” she said. “They were really ’70s kind of looking, but not ’70s in that fun, kitschy way…’70s in a different way that I don’t really enjoy. So I was like, ‘I’m going to paint big cat heads or whatever.’”

Eventually, Feeback discovered that one of the paintings was a work called “Vertical Diamond” by 20th century artist Ilya Bolotowsky and was worth a significant amount of money. The painting will go up for auction in September.

Feeback has been unemployed since 2008 and said the pricey painting is a godsend. “I have some medical issues and my unemployment ran out a long time ago. We have been dipping into our savings. I don’t know if this is a miracle, but it’s a pretty lucky find,” she said.

Beats cat heads, that’s for sure.

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