The money will go toward future acquisitions for the Stark Museum of Art, said Walter Riedel, Stark Foundation chief executive officer.
The work, painted in 1650 by Dutch artist Gerrit Dou, was sold because it didn't blend with the Western and Native American art collection in the local museum, Riedel said.
The Dou painting - elaborately titled "A sleeping dog beside a terracotta jug, a basket, and a pile of kindling wood" - was bought by Miriam Lutcher Stark in 1927 in Europe, said David Hunt, Stark Museum of Art director.
Dou, a student of Rembrandt, was internationally famous and wealthy during his lifetime. His works have gone in and out of style as centuries passed, but the foundation's "Sleeping dog" piece recently has been the talk of the art world, Christie's auction house spokesman Rik Pike said in a telephone interview.
"This exquisite little panel by Gerrit Dou is one of the most important 17th-century Dutch Old Masters I have had the honor of handling in my 17-year career at Christie's, and certainly the most appealing," said Anthony Crichton-Stuart, head of the Old Masters Department-New York.
The work was expected to sell for $2 million to $3 million but went for almost twice that in a bidding frenzy May 25, Pike said.
After the Dou, the highest sale price was $1.64 million for a collection of 12 oil paintings of flowers by Pieter Casteels, Pike said.
The European works were scattered over downtown Orange - some in vaults at the art museum, some in offices at the foundation and some in the old Stark homes.
Several decades ago, the collection was offered to the University of Texas, but UT didn't take it because it didn't have a proper place to show it, Hunt said.
The university did take the Starks' book collection, which includes works by Byron, the Brontes and a long series of letters from Thomas Jefferson to Charles Wilson Peale, according to the UT Web site.
When Nelda Stark - widow of H.J. Lutcher Stark, who was the son of Miriam Lutcher Stark - died in December 1999, Christie's appraisers came to Orange to look over her belongings, Hunt said. They discovered the European works.
The appraisers were very interested in the Dou, Hunt said.
However, the foundation didn't decide until last year to sell the collection.
Christie's personnel came back to Orange this year to inventory the collection and prepare it for sale, Hunt said.
Even before the Dou sold, dealers knew the Stark Museum would be looking to buy Western and Native American art. People have been calling with offers to sell for weeks, Hunt said.
"They almost know that you are selling something before the gavel falls," Riedel said.
Yet Hunt is not anxious to buy.
He would like to spend the money on sculptures, perhaps some for outside the museum. But he's in no hurry.
"There's nothing I'm dying to have," he said.
jreid@beaumontenterprise.com
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