Long-lost Georgia O'Keeffe painting found in an East Village closet could fetch $3 million

Image and information via Christie's Press Centre. 

An East Village apartment closet turned out to be hiding a valuable piece of art. 

According to Christie's Press Centre, a long-lost Georgia O'Keeffe painting, Near Abiquiu, New Mexico I, was recently discovered in the closet of a longtime neighborhood resident. 

The 1930 landscape had been a graduation gift to the woman in the 1960s. Her mother purchased it for $3,800 in 1963. 

The painting hung in her apartment until the mid-1980s, when she became concerned that a guest at a bridge game was taking too much interest in it. 

So she packed it away in its original wooden box, where it remained for roughly 40 years. Earlier this year, while her niece was helping her sort through belongings, the woman casually mentioned, "Oh, by the way, there's a Georgia O'Keeffe in the closet." 

The painting, previously known to art historians only through a 1931 photograph, is now expected to fetch around $3 million at Christie's Nov. 17 auction. 

Before then, the public can see it for free at Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Center, from Saturday through Nov. 17. 

The woman, whose family has requested anonymity, died shortly after the painting was rediscovered.