The board of trustees at an Iowa library voted unanimously last fall to reject an offer of $6 million from the John Surovek Art Gallery in Palm Beach, Fla., on behalf of an anonymous client, for a painting it owns by famed Regionalist artist Grant Wood.

According to reports, Carnegie-Stout Public Library has gotten many lesser offers over the years for "Appraisal," Wood's 1931 depiction of a farmer woman selling a chicken to a fur-clad city lady. The work was painted after Woods skyrocketed to fame in the Depression Era for his iconic "American Gothic."

"The Grant Wood is a source of pride not only to the Carnegie-Stout Library but to all of Dubuque," wrote library board President Jenny L. Weiss in an email to The Dubuque Telegraph Herald. "As long as the library owns 'Appraisal,' the Board of Trustees feels an obligation to ensure it remains a Dubuque treasure."

Wood's "Appriasal," and his "Victorian Survival" are on loan from the library to the Dubuque Museum of Art.