B.C. man's discovery of original painting proves meaningful for 83-year-old artist in Haida Gwaii

Sawatsky Sign-Off: Art Returned The unexpected discovery of an original painting in Victoria is proving meaningful for one Haida Gwaii artist.

Victoria — Although the range of products at Rory Perron’s store couldn’t be more different, from half a dozen office chairs to one pair of camouflaged hip waders with size 14 boots, his price tags are all the same.

“Post-it Notes!” Rory smiles, sticking them around his Local Liquidations store. “That’s my hi-tech pricing system.”

But Rory didn’t put a Post-It on what he found during a recent hotel liquidation. Instead of the typical art prints, he discovered a rare original painting.

“I’m not an artist type,” Rory says. “But even a guy like me could recognize the beauty of it.”

When Rory flipped the painting around, he found a couple of hidden newspaper articles attached to the back of the canvas. They profiled a Haida artist named Keenawaii Roberta Olson.

“So we did a little research on the internet,” Rory says. He found a woman with the same name running a restaurant in far away Haida Gwaii called Keenawaii’s Kitchen, and gave her a call.

“I was surprised,” Roberta says, on a FaceTime call from her home in Skidegate. “I appreciate what he did to remind me of my life a long time ago.”

The now-83-year-old says she hadn’t seen the painting in almost 45 years and offered to buy it back.

That’s exactly what Rory had hoped for.

“Maybe we’ve got something of value here, something of financial value,” Rory says. “But I didn’t realize that value was going to be something different in this case.”

He never expected that his phone conversation with Roberta would be so meaningful, and that her voice sharing the story of her Haida heritage would be so strong. Rory never expected to feel inspired to give her the painting for free.

“It’s a moving feeling to be able to connect two things that were separated a long time ago,” Rory says, fighting back tears.

Roberta’s granddaughter Elisha Henderson was certainly moved when she picked up the painting from Rory.

“That kind of generosity doesn’t come along every day,” Elisha says.

And now that it’s back in the family, Elisha hopes this new story associated with her grandmother’s painting will inspire future generations to be generous too.

“To continue giving,” Elisha smiles. “And be kind to others.”