Bitter Owner Sells Farm Shown in Wyeth Painting

The farm immortalized in Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina’s World” has been sold, and film producer Joseph E. Levine is glad to be rid of it.

Levine, who lives in New York, said a feud with neighbors over his ill-fated attempt in the 1970s to turn the property into a museum left him so embittered that he’ll never return to Cushing.

He told the Bangor News that he has sold the so-called Olson farm to a California woman, Carol Scully, who “considers the land to be sacred ground and is going to preserve it. I think she is going to raise horses there.”

Levine paid $35,000 for the farmhouse and 22 acres in 1972. He declined to reveal the selling price but he had asked $750,000 for the farm, which had been on the market for years.

Paintings by Wyeth, who has a summer home in Cushing, were displayed at the farm during the summers of 1973 and 1974 when the house was operated as a museum. It was closed after neighbors complained about the noise and traffic.

Levine said he remains Wyeth’s biggest fan. “He is a good guy. He deserves all the billions he is making.”