O’Keeffe Museum buys artist's rarely seen Lake George work

SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) -- The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe has acquired a rarely seen painting created by the artist in 1926.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the museum purchased “The Barns, Lake George” from Christie‘s Auction House in New York City for $3.3 million.

The work has been held in private collections since 1946 and only shown publicly once in the past 50 years. It features rustic barns overlooking the shores of Lake George in New York, where the artist and her husband had a retreat.

Museum officials say the Lake George painting will fill gaps in the collection to tell a more complete story of O’Keeffe’s development. Curator Carolyn Kastner says it comes as a surprise to many people that the artist painted things other than flowers.