Long-Lost Georgia O’Keeffe Painting Found Beneath Fur Coats in NYC Closet Could Fetch $3 Million

A suspicious bridge game sent a modernist masterpiece into hiding

November 7, 2026 · 2:30 a.m. Central / 3:30 a.m. Eastern

For nearly four decades, art historians listed Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1930 oil landscape Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I as “unlocated,” knowing the work only from a black-and-white exhibition photograph taken in 1931. As it turned out, the painting had not vanished—it was sitting in its original cardboard gallery box on the floor of a Manhattan apartment closet underneath a row of vintage fur coats.

Now, the rediscovered 10-by-24-inch canvas is expected to sell for between $2 million and $3 million at Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in New York on November 17, 2026, following a public exhibition at Rockefeller Center opening Saturday, November 7.

According to Christie’s specialists and The Washington Post, the painting’s late owner—a former U.S. Foreign Service officer and world-ranked bridge master—received the work in 1963 after her mother bought it from Manhattan’s Downtown Gallery for $3,800 as a college graduation present. She displayed the painting on her East Village apartment wall for more than two decades until a bridge game in the mid-1980s changed her mind.

Rediscovered in its original Downtown Gallery box

During that 1980s card game, the owner noticed one of the visiting bridge players staring intently at the O’Keeffe canvas. Convinced the guest was “eyeing it a bit too closely” and worried the artwork might be stolen, she took the painting off the wall, placed it back inside its original Downtown Gallery cardboard shipping box, and tucked it behind winter coats at the bottom of her closet.

The painting remained untouched in the dark for roughly 40 years. While helping her aunt sort through the East Village apartment prior to the owner’s recent death, her niece uncovered the box beneath the fur coats and contacted Christie’s.

Art historians say Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I is the first in a 1930 series of three panoramic views O’Keeffe painted of Lobo Peak in northern New Mexico during her second summer in the state. The second painting in the series hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, while the third sold at auction in 2018 for $8.41 million. Because the newly surfaced work spent four decades sealed inside a dark closet, conservators noted its pigments and surface remain in remarkably fresh condition.

Nearly a century from New Mexico to Rockefeller Center

Summer 1930: Georgia O’Keeffe paints Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I, depicting Lobo Peak in northern New Mexico.
1931: The painting is photographed in black and white for an exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, its last known public documentation for decades.
1963: The owner’s mother purchases the painting from Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in Manhattan for $3,800 as a graduation gift.
Mid-1980s: Suspicious of a guest at a bridge game, the owner packs the canvas into its cardboard box and hides it under fur coats in her East Village closet.
November 7–17, 2026: Following its rediscovery by the owner’s niece, Christie’s places the painting on public view at Rockefeller Center ahead of its November 17 evening auction.

Where the rediscovered painting goes on public view

The star marks Christie’s galleries at 20 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, where the painting opens for public exhibition prior to the November 17 auction.

★ Christie’s, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City. Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Open map.