‘Lost’ painting tops $1 million

A landscape painting by 19th century American romantic painter Martin Johnson Heade was sold at auction for a little more than $1 million Sunday after being stashed away in an attic for more than 60 years.

The 12-by-26-inch river scene, which art historians did not know existed, was discovered in a home near Boston by antiques experts Leigh and Leslie Keno as they filmed an episode of the new PBS television series “Find!”

The painting had been estimated to be worth at least $500,000 and was sold to a New York-based art dealer who attended the auction in Amesbury, Mass., and paid $1,006,250.

Heade, who died in 1904, is now described by art experts as one of the best American romantic painters but was not considered a major artist during his lifetime, and some of his works served more utilitarian than decorative purposes.