Famed artist and Carbon County native Franz Kline's homage to his hometown has been sold.

"Lehighton", a 14-by-6-foot mural given as a gift to the Lehighton American Legion, was recently sold to the Allentown Art Museum, according to Legion members.A museum spokesman confirmed on Friday that the museum has purchased the mural, and has hired an art conservator to oversee the transport of the painting to the museum.The sale price was not available. The spokesman said more details will be released soon.Kline's painting, which was completed between 1945-1946, depicts landmarks from the borough of Lehighton, and is said to show Kline's home at 300 S. 9th St.The Legion has been looking for a buyer for the painting for several years, in hopes that they could preserve it, according to Floyd Brown, a past commander of the organization.Age and years of cigarette smoke have unfortunately tarnished the work. It was last cleaned in 1979.According to a 1997 newspaper article, Kline painted the mural directly onto the plaster wall of the Legion, which could complicate the transport of the painting.As part of the sale, the museum is assisting in a project to memorialize Kline at the renovated Lehighton Middle School. The museum will also provide some kind of art instruction at the school, according to someone familiar with the details of the sale.Born in 1910 in Wilkes-Barre, Kline spent his teenage years living in Lehighton. He attended Lehighton High School and Girard College in Philadelphia before heading to Boston University in 1931. In the 1950s, he achieved fame as an artist in New York City, but Carbon County was a big influence on his work."Lehighton," also known as "An Artist's View of Lehighton," is a colorful, stylized painting of the town and its rolling hills. It is a different style than the black and white, abstract expressionist paintings that earned Kline worldwide fame as an artist.Kline's abstract expressionist works have been known to fetch millions. In 2012, an untitled Kline painting sold for $40 million at Christie's Auction house.The Legion looked into restoring "Lehighton" themselves, but the estimated cost was more than $25,000.Brown said that the mural will be replaced by a replica."It's what you have to do with it. But people won't know it's even gone."