A 1970 oil painting by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo was salvaged by a New York woman from possible destruction earlier this fall and sold at a Sotheby’s auction for more than $1 million Tuesday.

A New York woman named Elizabeth Gibson happened to see a beautiful painting on a pile of garbage awaiting the pick-up truck some four years ago, as she took her morning walk on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

She picked it up and took it home, realizing only months later that it was in fact a long lost masterpiece by Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. After discovering the painting’s real identity and value, Gibson contacted the owner and returned the artwork.

“Tres Personajes” (“Three People”) was sold Tuesday night at Sotheby’s in New York during an auction of Latin American art. A telephone bidder whose name was not disclosed by Sotheby’s acquired the oil painting for $1,049,000.

While it is still not known how the painting ended up on a heap of garbage, there was little hope for its recovery, as it was stolen more than 20 years ago.

In late October, when it was reported that a New York woman had saved the painting from potential oblivion, Gibson told Reuters that when she had seen the artwork four years ago, she “immediately knew I had to go back. I knew I had to take it!”

She explained, “It was a huge, powerful and beautiful painting and I said to myself, ‘It is wrong to be in the garbage.’”

During some research on the Internet she came upon the website of “Antiques Roadshow FYI,” a companion program to the PBS show “Antiques Roadshow.” “Tres Personajes” appeared on the website, featured by Sotheby’s expert August Uribe.

She is to receive a $15,000 reward from the painting’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, plus an undisclosed percentage of the sale of the painting.

The painting was bought by a Houston couple in 1977 at Sotheby’s. August Uribe, Sotheby's senior vice-president of impressionist and modern art, said that the husband had paid $55,000 for it as a gift for his wife; he later died, reports Reuters.

Tuesday’s auction had 20 of 70 lots on offer remain unsold, the news agency reports. The auction total was $15.235 million, coming in under the pre-sale estimate of $16.5 million to $21.6 million.