Last summer, an unidentified individual browsing a donation center at the entrance of an Ontario landfill purchased a portrait for $5 CAD .
Part of the musician’s Dead Heads, or D Head, series, the 1997 painting is up for sale through June 24.
The 9.75- by 8-inch portrait shows a loosely painted head surrounded by swathes of blue and burgundy.
Numbered XLVI, or 46, the painting is one of 47 in the D Head series.
“The sitters ranged from band members, friends and acquaintances and there were also some self-portraits,” Cowley Abbott spokeswoman Andrea McLoughlin tells Ben Hooper of United Press International .
Known for his colorful wardrobe and innovative music style, he was “the original performer in a state of constant reinvention, paving the way for Prince, Madonna and Lady Gaga,” as Alan Light wrote for the Hollywood Reporter in 2016.
According to Christie’s, which sold a portrait from the D Head series for $27,500 USD in 2018, the pop star attended art school and, later in life, exhibited his paintings, sculptures and prints professionally.
The owner of the newly rediscovered portrait isn’t an art collector.
“Oftentimes it’ll be collectors,” Cowley tells CBC News.