Cape Cod painting nets more than $1M at auction
DENNIS, Mass.—A painting owned for generations by a Cape Cod family who had no idea what it was worth has netted more than $1 million.
The painting from the 1860s depicts three figures stacking hay as the sun sets. The frame had slipped over the artist's signature.
The family learned the piece was "Haying on the Marsh" by Martin Johnson Heade.
Original estimates put the value of the painting at about $500,000, but it sold for just over $1 million at auction on Friday.
A handful of determined bidders vied for the image of a golden sunset.
Heade was a founders of a school of art called luminism which focused on capturing the effects of light on the landscape.
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Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com
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