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Thrifting isn’t just about saving money, or the planet. It’s a whole magical world of adventure. Like stepping into a fairytale land that holds all sorts of glorious surprises. You never know what you might find…

Among the endless racks of forgotten fashion and shelves of chipped mugs, there really are some rare, weird, and wonderfully creative treasures just waiting to be discovered. Hauntingly beautiful portraits, handmade sculptures, unique books and posters, purses designed by someone’s great, great grandmother. And artworks that should belong in a national gallery.

If you’re keen to see some of the strange, beautiful, and totally unexpected artistic gems people have discovered while thrifting, you might want to follow and Instagram page aptly called Thrift Store Art. It’s a wall of pretty posts that could inspire you to head down to your nearest secondhand shop.

Bored Panda has put together a list of the best finds shared on the page. Each tells its own special story but they all have something in common: oodles of personality and a hint of mystery.

#1

Image credits: thriftstoreart

It’s one thing to unexpectedly score a gorgeous piece of art at a thrift shop or in the the corner of your dusty attic. But it’s a complete game changer when that artwork turns out to be worth a lot of money. Surprisingly, quite a few people have been lucky enough to have something like this happen to them.

A 90-year-old French woman had zero clue that there was a goldmine right in her kitchen. For years, she lived with a small painting humbly hanging above her hotplate. She’d always assumed it was a knock-off and was even ready to toss it in the trash while clearing out her house ahead of a big move. But then, something incredible happened.

#2

Image credits: thriftstoreart

#3

Image credits: thriftstoreart

In another case of unbelievable luck, a South Carolina antiques dealer bought a “random” still life for $3. The main reason being its flashy frame. He’d apparently hoped to resell the frame, thinking it was at least a century old.

Little did he know the contents of the frame held a lot more value. When his daughter-in-law took the artwork to an antiques roadshow, it emerged that the he’d bagged a Flemish painting from 1650, which would later sell for a cool $190,000.

#4

Image credits: thriftstoreart

#5

Image credits: thriftstoreart

#6

Image credits: thriftstoreart

And, according to artandobject.com, a bargain shopper at a West-Virginia flea market unwittingly struck similar (brief) luck when she bought a painting purely for its elaborate gold frame.

“Crammed in a $7 box of trinkets, the woman planned to trash the painting but first brought it to an auction house, where it was identified as Renoir’s painting Paysage Bords de Seine (Banks of the River Seine) from 1879,” reports the site. “But the buyer didn’t get to cash in on her find, as the Baltimore Museum of Art laid claim to the work, which had been stolen in 1951.”