It’s always nice if you can afford to buy say, a nice little cottage on Long Island, a getaway to escape reality and just enjoy the peace and quiet. One man spent $300,000 to buy just such a bungalow out in Bellport, N.Y. and found his reward for doing so would be more than some R&R — it’d be about $30 million worth of art.

Back in 2007, the home’s new owner discovered quite a cache of art in the garage and attic of the bungalow, reports News 12 Long Island. The works are all by obscure Armenian-American abstract impressionist  Arthur Pinajian and include thousands of paintings, drawings and journals.

Apparently when Pinajian died, he left instructions for the entire collection to be dumped in the Brookhaven landfill, but his family never did so. Maybe they just got busy or perhaps they forgot, resulting in this extreme and literal case of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

The man who bought the house also purchased that art for $2,500 and set about restoring, framing and cataloguing it. It’s been valued at $30 million, and some pieces have already been sold for prices as high as $500,000. While many of the works are stored in the cottage owner’s gallery in Bellport, 50 of Pinajian’s works are on exhibit now at Manhattan’s Fuller Building.

As always with these “Surprise! You’re rich!” stories, I’m going to take one last look around in the basements and attics of family members. Because goodness knows there’s nothing hiding in my storage-bereft apartment.

Thousands of paintings by artist Arthur Pinajian rescued in Bellport cottage [News 12 Long Island]

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