A chance discovery on the street turned out to be a priceless painting
A resident of Spain accidentally picked up a painting from the street, thinking it had simply been thrown away. It later turned out to be an original work by the famous artist Joaquín Soroja, which the owners had accidentally left by the roadside.
This unexpected story happened in Spain to 57-year-old Andrés Hurtado. While traveling to Seville, he saw a painting leaning against a wall and assumed it had simply been thrown away. The man took his find home, but just a few days later, he learned that he had accidentally become the owner of a valuable work of art. According to Hurtado, it wasn’t even the painting itself that caught his interest, but the wooden frame. “We took it because of the frame, not because of the painting itself,” he said on Radio Sevilla.
As it turned out, the painting belonged to a family from Seville. They had kept the painting for many years and even took it with them on trips. On the day it went missing, the owners were about to put it in the trunk of their car, but in their haste, they accidentally left it by the wall and drove off. When the family realized it was missing, they immediately began searching for it. They posted flyers stating only that they had lost a painting of great sentimental value. They deliberately did not mention the artist’s name or the painting’s approximate value.
Meanwhile, Andrés Hurtado had already returned home to Murcia, about 525 kilometers from Seville. To find out more about the discovery, he decided to use artificial intelligence. “The AI came up with some crazy figures, so I started looking for information online and called an auction house in Madrid. I sent them a photo, and they quickly replied that it was an original by Soroya,” the man told El Mundo.
According to experts, the work by the renowned Spanish artist Joaquín Soroya could be worth up to 150,000 euros. However, the man did not keep the painting for himself. After seeing a news report about an allegedly stolen work of art and recognizing the same photo, he immediately contacted the police. “I called the police right away and told them that the news about the theft was false. I explained that I hadn’t stolen anything, but had simply found the painting on the street,” said Hurtado.
After that, law enforcement returned the painting to its rightful owners. The family thanked the man for his honest act and promised to give him a small gift. According to the owners, they had gotten stuck in heavy traffic that day. Amid the noise, the honking of other cars, and the rush, they simply forgot the painting by the wall. It was only later that they realized the precious work of art had been left on the street. This was reported by The Guardian.
In March 2024, Spain came within a hair’s breadth of blocking Telegram. The reason was not issues of war, espionage, or political extremism, but complaints from major media companies about the unauthorized distribution of content.
