A 30-year-old painting of rare breed cows has finally been acquired by the farmer who owned them at the time, thanks to Chilcotts auctioneers in Honiton.

Back in the late 1980s the artist Denise Manning was commissioned to paint all the rare farm breeds of the UK by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. The resulting collection was exhibited in a tour that included the RAMM in Exeter.

One of the paintings was called Longhorns at Tregony , painted by Denise at a farm in Cornwall. The farmer, John Warne, spent the day helping her. He loved the finished work and was keen to buy it, but the painting was sold to someone else by mistake, leaving John bitterly disappointed.

But 30 years later, the cows came home!

How John's family traced the painting

One of John's sons, interested in the history of the Tregony area where his family have lived for many generations, set up a search alert with the-saleroom.com to receive notifications when anything to do with Tregony is sold.

Liz Chilcott said: "The son received an alert about the painting of the longhorns being included in our auction, and the family decided to bid on it. Happily, they were successful.

"We were thrilled when we heard the back story and met one of Mr Warne's grandsons Kalen when he came to collect the painting. Mr Warne is now 85 and we're told he is delighted to have his cows back!"

Liz said it was fascinating to learn about the cows in the painting.

"In particular we learned from the family that the cow at the top right of the picture was a prizewinner for her breed at the Royal Show in 1991. After the show, John sold her to another breeder for the princely sum of 3,000 guineas."

John has a sterling reputation in the world of agriculture; he is one of only a few people to have judged the livestock five times at The Royal Agricultural Show at Stoneleigh and was also President of the Royal Show.

Longhorns at Tregony sold for £300 at auction plus Buyers Premium of 21%