ART MARKET / O'Keeffe goes missing

A painting by Georgia O'Keeffe, who seems to be America's most popular 20th-century artist at the moment, has gone missing, very possibly in Britain.

On the back of a black and white photograph of it (left) from the O'Keeffe archive, the artist has written that it was bought by the late Lord Duveen and given to the Tate Gallery. The Tate, however, denies all knowledge of it.

It comes from a series of four paintings of flagpoles made by O'Keeffe in about 1924. Another (above), now on show in the O'Keeffe exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London, gives an idea of what the colours might be. The missing painting appeared in several exhibitions, with different titles: 'The Flagpole', 'The Flagpole, Violet, Green and Blue', 'Little House with Flagpole No 2', 'Black, Violet and White'.

Anyone finding it should contact Barbara Buhler Lynes, O'Keeffe Catalogue Raisonne, 230 Stony Run Lane 1c, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.