‘There’s a Georgia O’Keeffe in the closet’: Woman’s niece discovers 1930 painting hidden for four decades in New York apartment; rare artwork, once bought for $3,800, could now fetch $3 million at auction

A casual remark about an old painting tucked away in a closet has led to an extraordinary art-world discovery: a long-unseen work by American modernist Georgia O’Keeffe, valued at around $3 million, is heading to auction after spending nearly four decades out of public view in a New York apartment. The painting, ‘Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I’, was found by the niece of its owner, who had reportedly kept it packed in its original box after becoming uneasy when a guest appeared to pay it too much attention during a bridge game in the 1980s.The owner’s revelation was disarmingly matter-of-fact. “Oh, by the way, there’s a Georgia O’Keeffe in the closet,” she reportedly told her niece. The family had not known about the artwork’s existence until then. After the owner died, her niece contacted Christie’s, setting in motion the process that brought the painting back into the art market and public view.According to People, the 10-by-24-inch oil painting was created in 1930 and depicts Lobo Peak in New Mexico. Christie’s estimates its value at around $3 million. It will be offered at the auction house’s 20th Century Evening Sale in New York on November 17, 2026, after being displayed in a public exhibition from November 7 to 17 at Christie’s Rockefeller Center premises.The story behind the painting stretches back to 1963, when the owner’s mother purchased it for $3,800 from The Downtown Gallery in Manhattan, which represented O’Keeffe. The artwork was given to her daughter as a graduation present after she earned a master’s degree. For a time, it was displayed in her East Village apartment, but that changed in the mid-1980s.During a bridge game, the owner noticed that a guest appeared to be looking at the painting rather closely. The family told the auction house that she became uncomfortable and decided to put it away. She returned it to its original box and placed it in the back of a closet, where it remained for decades.The woman was described by relatives as sophisticated and highly intelligent. She had studied at several distinguished institutions and travelled widely while working in the Foreign Service. Her family has requested that her identity remain private. The painting’s rediscovery came towards the end of her life, and her niece eventually reached out to Christie’s to establish what the family had found.What makes the discovery particularly significant is that the painting was not simply an artwork missing from a family’s collection. According to Christie’s, its existence had previously been documented through a photograph taken in 1931. The work appeared in the artist’s catalogue raisonné, the comprehensive scholarly record of her paintings, but had remained out of public view for decades.The auction house believes ‘Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I’ is probably the first of three paintings in which O’Keeffe depicted Lobo Peak. The mountain is located near Abiquiu, the northern New Mexico community that became closely associated with the artist and her work. O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929, and the region’s mountains, desert landscapes and distinctive light would become recurring subjects in her paintings.The other two versions offer an indication of the significance of the rediscovered work. A second painting from 1930 is in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The third, created in 1931, once belonged to collectors Peggy and David Rockefeller. Christie’s sold that version in 2018 for $8.41 million, well above its pre-sale estimate of $3 million to $5 million.Christie’s has described the newly rediscovered painting as an important early landscape that anticipates O’Keeffe’s later explorations of abstraction and the New Mexico environment. Its flowing contours and earthy colours reflect the artist’s interest in transforming familiar natural forms into compositions that could appear almost abstract.O’Keeffe, born in Wisconsin in 1887, became one of the most influential figures in American modernism. She was known for her close-up flower paintings, architectural subjects and landscapes, particularly those inspired by New Mexico. She eventually made the state her home and continued to paint its terrain throughout her career. She died in Santa Fe in 1986, aged 98.The rediscovery also comes against the backdrop of a strong market for O’Keeffe’s work. Her painting ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1’ sold for $44.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2014, setting an auction record for the artist. The 2018 Rockefeller sale, which included the other version of ‘Near Abiquiu, New Mexico’, further demonstrated the demand for important works from her New Mexico period.Tylee Abbott, Christie’s senior specialist and head of American Art, described the discovery as a rare opportunity in a market where major works by established artists are generally well documented. He said the painting represented O’Keeffe’s engagement with the landscape and was remarkably well preserved.For the public, the rediscovery offers a chance to see a work that had effectively vanished from view for generations. Christie’s exhibition at 20 Rockefeller Plaza will run from November 7 to November 17, ahead of the auction. The sale proceeds are expected to be shared among family interests, with a portion also going towards an educational institution, according to reports.A painting bought for $3,800 as a graduation gift, hidden after an unsettling moment at a bridge table and remembered through a photograph for decades, is now returning to the spotlight. Nearly a century after O’Keeffe painted the New Mexico landscape, the work is set to be seen again, this time, by collectors and art lovers who may help determine its multimillion-dollar value.