Imagine rummaging through your relative’s hallway closet, shoving aside a row of dusty vintage fur coats, and accidentally stumbling upon a lost masterwork worth millions.That exact cinematic scene played out recently inside an East Village apartment in New York City, where a long-lost 1930 landscape by legendary American artist Georgia O’Keeffe was pulled out of hiding after sitting untouched for almost forty years.Titled Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I, the oil-on-canvas painting is now heading to the auction block at Christie’s, where art experts estimate it will fetch anywhere between $2 million and $3 million (Rs 18.8 to 28 crore). The bidding is officially set for November 17 in Manhattan.The saga behind how this multimillion-dollar treasure ended up crammed behind winter outerwear is almost wilder than the sale itself.
A forgotten family treasure hidden in plain sight
The painting belonged to an elderly, highly private former Foreign Service worker living in Manhattan. Her niece, identified publicly only as Betsy, uncovered the canvas while stepping in to help arrange hospice care for her aging aunt.As it turns out, the discovery wasn’t a total hallucination. Back in 2022, the aunt had casually mentioned to her home health aides that she actually owned a real Georgia O’Keeffe original and had tucked it away inside her hallway closet.The piece originally entered the family back in 1963, when the woman’s mother bought it from the iconic Downtown Gallery in New York for $3,800 as a graduation present.So how on earth did a priceless piece of American art history sit forgotten in a dark closet for decades?According to family accounts, the owner got spooked back in the 1980s after a guest visiting her apartment started taking a suspiciously intense interest in the artwork hanging on her wall. Paranoid about potential theft, she carefully packed the canvas back into its original gallery box, slid it into the closet under a dense line of heavy fur coats, and literally left it there for the next forty years.
Why art historians are freaking out over this find
There’s way more to this rediscovery than just a quirky storage choice. Painted in 1930, the piece captures Lobo Peak in New Mexico, depicting the vast, undulating desert landscape that famously captured O’Keeffe’s heart and redefined her career.Art historians at Christie’s confirm this newly emerged canvas is actually the very first of three specific views O’Keeffe painted of that mountain range.The second version, completed that same year, sits safely inside the permanent collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The third, painted in 1931, went up for auction at Christie’s back in 2018 as part of the famed Peggy and David Rockefeller estate, fetching a massive $8.41 million after blowing past its initial pre-sale estimates.What makes this particular find so extraordinary is that scholars knew Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I existed almost exclusively through a single black-and-white archival photograph taken back in 1931. Given how thoroughly O’Keeffe’s entire life work has been cataloged, having a original piece re-emerge out of thin air – still tucked inside its original 1960s gallery packaging – is basically the art market equivalent of finding buried treasure.
Pre-auction views and what happens to the cash
Art lovers wanting a look at the rare canvas before it goes under the hammer can check it out at Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale exhibition, running through November 17 in New York.O’Keeffe easily remains one of the most bankable female artists in auction history. Her reigning world record sits at a staggering $44.4 million, set back in 2014 when Sotheby’s sold her 1932 masterpiece Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1.As for the proceeds from this unexpected closet find? The family plans to donate a chunk of the millions to an educational institution, while the rest will cover family expenses – including helping relatives pay off their home mortgages.Not a terrible outcome for a canvas that spent nearly half a century suffocating underneath a rack of old winter coats.