Georgia O’Keeffe Painting Found Under Fur Coats in Manhattan Closet

A Georgia O’Keeffe painting valued between three and five million dollars spent nearly forty years hidden under fur coats in a Manhattan apartment closet, according to tf1info.fr.

The 1930 oil on canvas titled “Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I” measures 25.4 by 61 centimeters and depicts the landscape of New Mexico. Before its recent recovery, the artwork was known only through a single 1931 photograph taken by the artist’s husband, Alfred Stieglitz, as reported by Smithsonian Magazine.

In 2022, a woman named Betsy was clearing out her late aunt’s East Village apartment when her relative mentioned the hidden artwork. “Au fait, il y a un tableau de Georgia O’Keeffe dans le placard du couloir,” her aunt told her, according to the New York Post.

Weeks later, Betsy found the canvas carefully preserved inside its original wooden box behind a stack of furs. Her aunt’s mother originally purchased the piece for $3,800 in 1963 as a college graduation gift.

The owner kept the painting displayed for years until the 1980s, when a bridge party guest showed intense interest in it. She then tucked the piece away out of caution, and it remained untouched for four decades. “Je pense qu’elle était pleinement consciente de sa valeur,” Betsy told the New York Post.

Experts at Christie’s authenticated the canvas using its signature, style, and existing archives. The cataloged work had previously carried the designation “non localisée.”

The artwork went on public display at Rockefeller Center on November 7. Christie’s will offer “Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I” at a New York auction on November 17, 2026.