PORTLAND, Ore. (The Associated Press)—A painting by Vincent van Gogh that has been hanging in a Roseburg home for almost 50 years will soon be available for all to view at the Portland Art Museum.

Fred and Frances Sohn donated The Ox-Cart, an 1884 painting by the revered Dutch artist, and it will go on display next month. It's the museum's first painting by van Gogh.

"This is the biggest thing we've been given," said Bruce Guenther, the museum's chief curator. "And it's an affirmation of this community that the Sohns want this painting to stay in Oregon."

An appraisal of the painting was recently completed in New York for insurance and tax purposes but won't be available until December. Guenther thinks the work could be worth several million dollars.

A prominent Douglas County businessman for decades, Fred Sohn was born in Germany and is a Holocaust survivor. He and his wife, Frances Sohn, moved to Roseburg in 1949, where he started a successful timber company.

The Ox-Cart was given to the Sohns in 1960 by Frances Sohn's parents, who collected art and bought the painting in 1950. It was exhibited in major museum shows during the first half of the 20th century, including a 1935 exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Fred and Frances Sohn are occasional, not serious, art buyers, said Howard Sohn, who is acting as the family's spokesman. And although they have never given money to the museum, they've donated to many charitable organizations in Douglas County and Oregon.

"They see themselves in their final chapters and are thinking about all of the things they have enjoyed," Howard Sohn told The Oregonian newspaper. "This gift is consistent with the way they have lived their lives."