Edward Hopper painting of NY island sells for $19M

[May 24, 2013]  NEW YORK (AP) -- An Edward Hopper painting of New York City's Roosevelt Island has sold for just over $19 million at auction.

"Blackwell's Island," a large-scale oil painting from 1928, sold at Christie's on Thursday. Christie's identified the seller as a private American collector. The buyer wasn't identified.

The painting depicts the island from across the East River against a dark silhouette of buildings. The island was renamed for President Franklin Roosevelt in 1971.

The painting was recently included in the first major retrospective of Hopper's work at the Grand Palais (grahn pah-LAY') in Paris. It also has been exhibited in museums, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The current Hopper record is $26.9 million for "Hotel Window."

[Associated Press]

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