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Salvador Dali etching found at Goodwill store

Signed sketch by Salvador Dali found at Goodwill
Signed sketch by Salvador Dali found at Goodwill

Someone dropped off an etching at a Goodwill store in Tacoma, Wash. But this wasn't your typical frowning-clown thrift store art. It was drawn by surrealist and mustache aficionado Salvador Dali.

Goodwill, eager to make the most of the find, put the piece of art up for auction. So far, the high bid is $7,505 with about four days left before the auction ends.

It's unclear if the donor knew the monetary value of the piece. Likely he or she did. It is clearly signed by Dali and comes with a certificate of authenticity from an art gallery. The colored etching was numbered 126/150. According to the Goodwill site, "The paper has some warping, as if from humidity. The upper right area of matting has some discolored speckling. The other damage is to the frame and glass—a few deep scratches and scuffs." That's right, kids—the frame is included.

[Related: NYC Museum of Modern Art to feature garage sale]

According to Seattle's Fox affiliate Q13, a Goodwill employee recognized the piece of art as a "high-value" item. So, rather than sticking it on a shelf, to the online auction block it went.

This is hardly the first time a piece of high-value art has been discovered in an unusual place. In 2010, a man bought some paintings at a Las Vegas garage sale. He later discovered that behind one of the paintings was an original sketch by Andy Warhol. Cha-ching!

But not all the finds end well. In another case, a woman bought a painting for $7 that turned out to be a Renoir. But that Renoir had been stolen from a Baltimore museum decades earlier. Easy come, easy go.