"Fresh is best" is a dictum often applied to the auction market.

A fresh-to-market work by the Hudson River School master Jasper F. Cropsey painting that had descended in a California family for 80 years created buzz at Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries in New York on March 24.

The oil, entitled "Head of the Lake," probably depicts Cropsey's favored subject of Greenwood Lake.

A Pennsylvania couple purchased the 30-by-22-inch painting for $180,000, soundly within the pre-sale estimate of $150,000-200,000.