Discovered in Boiler Room: Lost Painting Auctioned For $500K

MILWAUKEE, WI — A rare painting that sat for decades in a boiler room at Washington High School recently sold for more than a half million dollars at auction this week — the third-highest price for a work by American artist Birger Sandzen ever.

According to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wednesday, "The Creek at Twilight," a 1920s-era painting, netted $516,500 at auction.

The school is said to gain $420,000 in net proceeds for its scholarship program. Another Sandzen original that netted $351,000 earlier this year will amount to $771,000 that will be used to fund college scholarships for Washington High School graduates.

Most of the graduates from Milwaukee's Washington High School come from low-income families. A small group of school alumni embarked on a 13-year project to bring the paintings to auction and to fund the scholarship program.

According to reports, "Twilight" was purchased from the trunk of Sandzen's car as a gift for the school in 1927 by its graduating class that year. It and another painting hung in the school for decades until they were relegated to storage. They were rediscovered in 2004.

Image via Milwaukee Public Schools via Scott Anderson