The Painting No One Was Allowed To See

 It was kept in a locked room in the back of the old farmhouse that had been built in the northeast corner of a 10 acre plot of land located about 16 miles from the nearest town of any size.

It was worth at least 4 times what the combined value of every piece of property - land and buildings and contents - within a 50 mile radius of the old farmhouse would be worth (if a buyer could be found for some of the fallow lands and derelict buildings that is).

A buyer could readily be found for the painting, should it ever be put up for sale. Several buyers actually, possibly thousands of buyers.

The very existence of the painting was a closely guarded secret however, known only to a few people. Three people to be exact.

Two brothers and a sister, the offspring of the man who had brought the painting back from Europe with him when he was discharged from the Army following the end of World War II.

After their parents had passed away (tragically, in the crash of a large airliner), the then twenty-ish siblings had agreed to keep the painting in the small locked room, just as their father had for 33 years. 

The room had been intended to be used as a bedroom when the farmhouse was originally built, but was converted into what their Father called his "Den" after he had bought the property after graduation from the University.

The interior of the den resembled the library of an English manor home, or at least the Hollywood version of what a library in an English manor home would look like. Wainscoting featuring dark mahogany panels, wallpaper that may have been designed by William Morris in one of his darker periods, a coffered ceiling without a light fixture, a small fireplace with a tiled hearth and a heavy, rough-hewn oak mantle.

Large sconces with electrical lights (some of the first ever installed in the county) were mounted on all the walls, and they provided ample light for the windowless room.

Two large, comfortable leather club chairs on either side of a round drinks table were positioned in front of the only wall that wasn't covered in framed photographs of family and friends.

It was on this wall that the painting hung. It was a fairly modest size, approximately 28.5 by 36 inches, and was secured to a simple, unornamented frame.

The paint was thick, and looked as if it had been sculpted onto the canvas. The colors bright, vibrant, almost as if to suggest the flowers depicted were in a state of alert.

The painting was, as their father had often stated, devastatingly magnificent.

In the lower right hand corner of the painting, at an angle that seemed to suggest it was trying to escape from the canvas through the bottom of the frame, was a signature in a light red hue.

"Vincent".