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The painting hung in every house her father lived in, but Gardiner said his boasts about the work’s illustrious origins were met with indulgent disbelief from family members.

“To have some painting that might be famous in the house was just beyond my comprehension, because we weren’t well off, and that sounded like something someone else would have,” she said. “It was just dad’s Tom Thomson and we never corrected him.

“My girlfriend thinks my dad is just laughing at all the fun we’re having with it.”

Gardiner said she held on to the painting for its sentimental rather than aesthetic value, but neither she nor her father ever considered having its value assessed for auction.

“It had intrinsic value, just because someone thought enough of (my dad) to give that to him, not for what it was worth,” she said.

Photo by Heffel Inc. handout / The Canadian Press

Had she known Thomson was its true artist, Gardiner said she would have put more effort into maintaining the painting rather than stacking it in a pile of paintings in her basement.

“It was treated with care, but not a huge amount of respect,” she said.

Heffel will be previewing the painting for the public as part of its spring auction in Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto over April and May. A live auction will be held at the Design Exchange in Toronto on May 30.

In addition to helping out her son financially, Gardiner said she plans to spend some of her profits from the sale to take her friend on a Mediterranean cruise ship as a thank you for her role in selling the painting.

Despite expert authentication, Gardiner said she finds it hard to believe her father’s claims about the Thomson painting have been “vindicated” after all these years.

“It really is a matter of pinching myself once in a while,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine I could be part of that in any way.”