Tracy Donahue felt like she and her husband Tom won a lottery when a $4 painting she purchased from a Savers thrift store years ago turned out to be a rare and valuable N.C. Wyeth illustration, writes Matt Stevens for The New York Times.

The illustration was part of a four-image set that the Chadds Ford artist contributed for a 1939 edition of Ramona, a novel by Helen Hunt Jackson.

When the painting went up for auction in September and the bid came out at $191,000, the couple, who seldom have extra funds for adventures, started thinking about how they would spend this unexpected influx of funds on bills and a trip to Germany to visit their son.

But when the buyer never actually paid for the painting, Donahue felt it was the “biggest disappointment ever.”

The couple has since retaken possession of the painting from Bonhams auction house.

“Luckily we didn’t spend a dime beforehand,” said Donahue. “We maybe went out to dinner once or twice, which we wouldn’t have. So, it’s not like actually losing money. But it meant so much.”

Read more about the buyer not coming through for the illustration in The New York Times.

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