Another piece of abstract art painted by Lehighton High School graduate Franz Kline fetched millions of dollars at a New York auction house.

A painting titled "Elizabeth," 1961, sold for $7.978 million during an auction of contemporary art by the prestigious Sotheby's Auction House last week.The bidder is anonymous.Kline black and white painting measures 79 by 59 inches.Sotheby's describes the painting as, "A stunning portrait of intimacy, Elizabeth is named for Kline's wife, the ballet dancer Elizabeth Parsons, who, like the famous Russian dancer Nijinsky, suffered from schizophrenia."As such, the painting is exemplary of the rich connotations inherent in the artist's most renowned works, all rooted in the plasticity of the paint and the purity of his unadulterated coloristic counterpoints in conjunction with absolute subjectivity and personal experience."Kline was born in Wilkes-Barre but moved to Ninth Street in Lehighton as a child. He played football at Lehighton High School, but is best known for his art, especially his abstracts.Kline, who died on May 13, 1962, is one of the most recognized abstract artists in the world. His artwork was featured on a U.S. postage stamp and his name has come up numerous times as an answer on the TV show "Jeopardy."Locally, his most famous piece of art is on display in the Lehighton American Legion Post where he painted a mural of Lehighton.Many of his pieces have sold for millions of dollars.In 2012 San Francisco financier George R. Roberts sold a nearly 10-foot-wide, untitled black-and-white work that Kline did in 1957 at Christie's, New York.The painting went to a telephone bidder for $36 million, or $40.4 million with fees (Christie's guaranteed the seller Robert Mnuchin an undisclosed minimum.In 2005 Christie's sold Crow Dancer (1958) for $6.4 million.Another piece of art titled "Elizabeth," 1958, was sold by Sotheby's last November for $4.842 million.