A month after it was stolen, the portrait of a Canadian soldier who died in Afghanistan has been returned to its Ottawa gallery -- along with an apology note.

The painting, slightly chipped, arrived at the Dale Smith Gallery on Wednesday, returned by the repentant thief through express post. A one-line, hand-written note was scrawled on the box: "Je m'excuse," French for "I'm sorry."

It included a return address, but gallery owner Dale Smith suspects the address is not that of the thief's.

"I opened it up and it was like a treasure, seeing it in the bubble wrap in the box. I was a wonderful feeling." She said. "I never thought I'd see it again."

The portrait, painted by Ottawa artist Heidi Conrod, was of Sgt. Christos Karigiannis, who was killed in Afghanistan in June. He died along side two of his comrades, after a roadside bomb struck their unarmoured vehicle west of Kandahar. All three soldiers were members of the Edmonton-based 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

Conrod painted the portraits of all three fallen soldiers after reading about their deaths in the newspaper.

"As an artist, I do paint a lot of portraits and I'm always looking for subjects that I connect with but I also know that other people will connect with," she said. "My heart went out to their families."

Karigiannis' portrait was stolen off the gallery wall in August, just before it was to be picked up by a friend of the Karigiannis family. It was purchased as a gift for the late sergeant's girlfriend. Both the girlfriend and family friend have asked to that they not be named in news reports.

The portraits were a popular display at the gallery. They were part of a group show this summer called "Fever."

"It was like 'oh nooo,' of all the paintings to be missing, because that one had a story behind it," Smith said.

The portrait will now be delivered to Karigiannis' girlfriend.

Police are still investigating the theft.