Valuable oil painting discovered after being dumped on this Birmingham city centre street

A valuable oil painting has been found during a litter pick in Birmingham city centre.

Volunteers were taking part in the street clean-up on the Civic Close estate, near the ICC, in the Westside district when they came across the canvas, which was attached to a board, lying on the ground. The oil painting, which depicts an American-style covered bridge, bears a date of 2019 and the artist’s name Neil Harris.

Westside BID, which organised the litter pick, arranged for the painting to be professionally framed, and called in former art gallery owner Lee Benson to cast his eye over it. Mr Benson, the former proprietor of Number 9 the Gallery in Brindleyplace, estimated that the painting would be worth between £195 and £250.

He said: “It’s quite a nice piece of art. You can tell the artist knows his colours because of the nice way it was painted. It is of a typical North American covered bridge, in a pre-autumn setting, nicely executed in a classic landscape style. He would appear to be a promising up and coming artist. I can only assume the painting has somehow slipped out of an art folder, maybe as it was being taken to be framed."

Mike Olley, general manager for Westside BID, said: "It’s amazing the sort of things that people throw away.  When we decided to carry out a litter pick on the Civic Close estate this was the last thing we were expecting to find. It is a very nice piece of artwork which someone has either thrown away after falling out of love with it, or it has somehow been lost. After having it framed, we shall be displaying it in a suitable location, but would appeal for the owner to claim it if it has been lost.”

Mr Olley asked that the artist or his family should contact him by emailing [email protected] if they would like to reclaim the painting.