GettyA London taxi driver has made an absolute fortune over an eye-catching painting he bought at a car boot sale for £40.
The work of art, which he originally managed to haggle down from £60 to £40 – hung on a wall in his house for years before he recently decided to sell it while redecorating, The Mirror reports.
He took the painting to an auction house who confirmed it was actually from the 19th century, and depicted an Indian town scene. They initially valued the piece at £500 – it sold for £92,250.
Indian painting bought by taxi driver for £40 at carboot sold at auction for £92,500 https://t.co/70AHpSc0Z2 pic.twitter.com/2aT4E66Mwz
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) May 5, 2016
Interest in the painting took off after bidders identified the scene as the historic town of Amritsar in northern India, with the Golden Temple – the holiest religious complex of the Sikh religion – in the background.
The artist is believed to have been painter Baba Bishan Singh, who came from a family of painters responsible for maintaining the murals and motifs on the walls of the Golden Temple. Driving up interest further, the artist is even depicted in the scene as painting a portrait in an alcove of a building.
It sold for the crazy price of £75,000, but with fees added, the taxi driver ended up with £92,250.
Absolutely insane.
