ART

A painting bought for a reportedly “small sum of money” at a sale in New York State and delivered to Christie’s New York strapped to the roof of a Jeep sold for $4.07 million Wednesday at the Park Avenue auction house. The allegorical masterpiece by 16th-Century Italian artist Dosso Dossi is “a very important example of Italian High Renaissance painting,” said Ian Kennedy, Christie’s leading Old Masters expert. Three private collectors vied for the painting as the price escalated into the millions, but London dealer Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox Ltd. made the winning bid. The sale was the highlight of a $13.6-million auction of Old Master works.