Roswell artist Zheng Li was visiting an Atlanta gallery in 2012 when he was stunned to find a painting on display that struck him as a virtual copy of one of his own works—a colorful semiabstract depiction of a grand piano.

Li began investigating and quickly learned that the painting he saw was being peddled without his permission or knowledge via websites and in galleries and stores across the country, said John Bowler, a Troutman Sanders lawyer in Atlanta who represents the artist. That painting was signed “P. Roberts,” a name that Bowler said was a fiction.

Li wasted little time in suing more than a dozen galleries and stores that had copies of the lookalike painting for sale. Last week, after a four-day trial, a federal jury in Atlanta awarded Li $885,174 after finding that the copyright for his 2004 oil painting, “Piano No. 9,” had been infringed and that the painting he had first spotted at the gallery was a knockoff. The six-person jury deliberated about 90 minutes before issuing the verdict against California-based Somerset Studios, Editions Limited West Inc. and Z Gallerie, all of which had sold copies of the infringing work.