A drawing by Annapolis Valley artist Alex Colville has been returned as mysteriously as it disappeared.

A thief stole the $14,000 drawing from Zwicker's Gallery in Halifax during the weekend.

But on Monday morning, it was returned by a priest.

Ian Muncaster is the owner of Zwicker's, the oldest commercial gallery in Canada. Muncaster says in his 30 years with the gallery, he has only seen half a dozen thefts of valuable art, and not all of them were returned.

He can't recall any of them being returned by a priest.

The priest told Muncaster that a man appeared in the doorway at the Roman Catholic Basilica with a garbage bag containing something under his arm on Sunday evening.

The priest said the man called out to him and said "I think you're going to be happy to see this." The Colville drawing was inside the garbage bag.

The priest told Muncaster the individual wished to remain anonymous.

Halifax police have said they believed a man in his mid-20s walked into Zwicker's on Saturday and made off with the drawing while staff weren't looking.

Muncaster says the 1967 work called "Street of Amherst" was on consignment to the gallery.

The drawing depicts a taxi office in the northern Nova Scotian town.

He says he's delighted to have the Colville drawing back.