Minutes taken during a meeting in 2008 show that the Thomas Cole painting to be sold from the Seward House Museum in Auburn, New York, was valued at $20 million.

The operating committee of the Foundation Historical Association Inc. met to discuss the value of works held in the historic home for the then owner of the Seward House grounds and collection, the Emerson Foundation.

Based on the Cole's appraised value and the need for security, the foundation decided to sell the artwork last month.

Art dealer Gurr Johns provided the appraisal.

The highest price paid at auction for a work by the Hudson River School artist is $1,463,500 for his "Catskill Mountain House" sold at Christie's in 2003. In a private sale, Cole's "Falls of the Kaaterskill" may have sold in the tens of millions of dollars.

Cole's 84-by-60-inch painting, “Portage Falls on the Genesee," was commissioned in 1839 as gift for William H. Seward, a two-time governor of New York, a U.S. senator, and secretary of state under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. His home and its contents were willed to the Emerson Foundation in the 1950s, by Seward's grandson.

In 2008, the foundation transferred the home, property and contents to the Seward House Museum to comply with new state regulations related to museums. The Cole painting was retained by the foundation.

Sale of the painting must meet court approval and be cleared by the state attorney general.