I'm trying to think of what I'd do if I found something on the street I thought was valuable. For the return of a $1 mil painting, a 1.5% thanks? There was a guy who sold a chair he'd found in his neighbor's trash for 189k. He must have actually known his neighbor and guessed at how much the chair was worth, since he got it appraised. I guess he didn't knock on the guys's door and offer any of the money back.

I blog about antiques in NYC and I've been writing about finding trash on the curb and turning it around for big bucks. There was another story a few weeks ago about a trailer park resident who pulled a chair out of his neighbor's garbage and sold it at auction for $198k. Obviously, after it was valued, he didn't knock on his neighbor's door and ask him if he wanted it back. The tough thing with the painting, though, was that the FBI was after it, so the finder would have had a tough time turning it around for her own gain.