This reminds me of an article I read in newspaper last week about a woman who found a painting in a trash in NYC a few years ago , and found out that it was stolen and was an expensive painting from a Mexican artist. A man brought it for his wife as a present many years ago and it was stolen. She returned the painting and is being auction off in at Sotheby's auction house for one million dollars.. She will be getting a finders fee of 15,000 and I believe they say Sothebys is giving her a reward also..
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/sto...-painting.html