A painting bought for just 50 pence ($1 Cdn) in Glasgow in the 1970s has turned out to be a Cornelius Krieghoff and sold Thursday for $68,470.

The oil painting, titled Chopping Logs Outside A Snow Covered Cabin, attracted bidders from around the world at Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull.

"It attracted a lot of interest, and we had healthy bidding in the room and on the phone," a Lyon and Turnbull spokesman said.

An anonymous bidder bought the painting, which shows a man chopping logs outside a cabin.

The seller discovered the painting at Glasgow's Barras Market and bought it "because I like it," he told the Glasgow Daily Record newspaper.

After researching his find, he discovered it was an original Krieghoff but didn't know the value of the painting until he looked into selling it.

Krieghoff , born in Amsterdam in the early 19th century, married a French-Canadian woman and moved to Canada.

Many of his paintings depict people doing everyday tasks.

"The picture was painted as a way of preserving life and customs that would have been lost," said Lyon and Turnbull managing director Nick Curnow. "It was probably brought back here by a Scottish soldier."