Man Paid Queens Thrift Shop $80 For Drawing By Famous Artist

WOODSIDE, QUEENS — The lucky shopper who found a drawing by famed Austrian artist Egon Schiele at a Queens thrift shop paid just $80 for it, the New York Post reported.

The anonymous buyer found a 1918 study by the Austrian expressionist in a Habitat for Humanity New York City ReStore in Woodside. It is worth as much as $200,000, experts say.

Through a Habitat for Humanity spokesperson, the buyer told the Post he visits the thrift shop roughly twice a week because he enjoys "digging and looking around through items with so much history."

He said his wife wanted to hang the drawing in their bathroom when he brought it home last year, but he stored it with his other art pieces so it wouldn't get damaged, according to the Post.

The buyer then contacted a leading expert on the artist, Jane Kallir of Galerie St. Etienne in Manhattan, acting on a hunch that the drawing could be the real deal.

"We were sent a rather blurry jpg of a drawing that had been purchased at a thrift store," Kallir said. "We did not expect much when, finally, the buyer of this drawing brought it in for us to examine."

But Kallir confirmed the drawing's authenticity. It's now on display at her gallery through Oct. 11.

The thrift store's director, Leslie Williams, told the Post she doesn't know where the piece came from or who donated it.

If it sells, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Habitat for Humanity New York City.