‘Exactly two years ago today, I went to a junk shop, where I found three sketchbooks filled with mind-boggling artwork. I bought them, for Rs 200 only. As I was walking home, I began to wonder why anyone would throw away so much of their hard work. The same name was written on the cover of these three books and that was Graceheart.
This was said by Tajur Munir, a fashion photographer from Lahore, who in his Instagram post shared the interesting story of a British student finding lost art pieces and then sending them back to the UK.
Tajur Munir further wrote ‘I searched his name on Instagram and found him. I sent them a message saying I got their work and it’s amazing, I’m curious to know why they threw it away.’
He further wrote in his post that ‘Grace then said that it was her portfolio and she had no idea how it had been lost to her in the UK.’
Tajur Munir writes that ‘Both of us had no idea how it reached Lahore. Later Grace shared her address and I sent it back to her.
“It’s strange how we can become part of someone’s story and art connects us in different ways,” he writes of the incident.
“Those books were the proof of my work”
Meanwhile, a fashion student in the UK who thought she had lost her precious sketches was shocked to find that they had reached Pakistan.
20-year-old Grace Hart feared she wouldn’t be able to get into university after her mother Sonia had accidentally thrown away her portfolio.
Then Gracehart found out that her art was sold in a shop in Lahore, four thousand miles away. Then, fate took another strange turn and a city photographer found her on Instagram before sending her designs back to her.
It all happened when Grace Hart was preparing her portfolio for an application to study fashion at Manchester Metropolitan University.
It just so happened that his art books got mixed up with things his family was sending to a charity shop.
Fortunately, the 20-year-old student was accepted into the course because she was able to send photos of the work she had spent years creating.
But neither Graceheart nor her mother realized where he had gone, and they spent months looking for him here and there.
“I was under a lot of stress because those art books were the only proof I had that I had done in school,” she said.
Hart began to understand the mystery when he received an Instagram message from a man named Tajur Munir. Gracehart said she initially mistook Tajur’s Instagram message for a hoax and didn’t respond.
‘Our faith in humanity has been restored’
But after talking later and waiting months for international delivery, Grace’s work finally got back to her.
“I’ve always been very proud of my art, it was very upsetting when I realized it was gone,” he said.
His mother described the story as unbelievable and thanked Munir. “We searched everywhere, I was worried,” she says.
“Grace is really talented and her art is amazing,” she says. I started panicking and thinking, what will she do for the university?’
She is now urging people to check items before throwing them away or donating them to charities.
He further said that ‘I never thought that we would get these art pieces back but this has restored our faith in humanity.’