In July 2000, Maple Ridge artist Kristin Krimmel consigned 64 paintings to the Anchor Rock Gallery in Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast.

A few years later, when the gallery shut down, the owner didn't tell her about the closure.

Krimmel tried to get her art back, but the owner claimed he returned them to her via Canada Post. She never received them.

Then, out of the blue, on June 27, Krimmel opened her email and got a surprise: a volunteer at a thrift store wanted to know if a bunch of paintings and drawings in a box - with her name on all of them - had any value.

A sorter at Saint Mary's Hospital Thrift Shop in Sechelt was about to throw them all out when she noticed that all the pieces had the same signature, so she looked up Krimmel's name on the Internet and contacted her.

The box of 38 dirty, dusty, water-damaged pieces had been donated anonymously.

"The Internet is a miracle," Krimmel said.

"I insisted that they come back. But, the manager of the thrift store said that they were irrevocably theirs, so I offered a donation to their charity" she said.

After some negotiations, the thrift store and Krimmel came to an agreement and the art was sent via bus on July 6.

"I was very pleased with the care the thrift store gave to them. They had all been dusted and were wrapped very carefully in new, white tissue paper," Krimmel said.

"These paintings are like old friends. I'm really happy to see them."

Krimmel intends to document the recovered pieces and then send one or two of the paintings back to Sechelt as a thank you to the volunteer who took the time to contact her.

A few others will be donated to the Unique Boutique on Lougheed Highway, which supports the Cythera Transition House Society.

Krimmel is chair of the District of Maple Ridge's public art steering committee, a member of the Fort Gallery in Fort Langley, and has recently been juried into the Fraser Valley Regional Biennale.

She trained at UBC as a specialist in the teaching of fine arts, and later received a diplome regional in painting from the Ecole Regional des Beaux Arts de Reims in France.

After seven years in France, she returned to B.C. to become an instructor with Emily Carr College of Art and Design, teaching drawing, colour and design.

She has received an honourary medal from the City of Vichy, France for her work. Her art has been seen in exhibitions in France, Canada, and the U.S., and in several Steven Cannell television productions.

smclaren@mrtimes.com