OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) – A Thomas Hart Benton painting given to a suburban Kansas City school in the 1950s has been a cause of concern for years as its value continues to grow but it is stored out of public view. Some former students who remember donating the painting want to know where it’s being kept.

The painting, called Utah Highlands, is in the district’s possession, Leigh Anne Neal, spokeswoman for the Shawnee Mission School District, told The Kansas City Star.

“We don’t have a missing painting,” Neal said. “It is in the possession of the school district. We keep it in a secure location. But for security purposes, we prefer not to disclose that location.”

Students bought the painting from Benton and his wife, Rita, in 1957 for $750 and donated it to a school that is now called Shawnee Mission North. It hung in the library for years but hasn’t been seen since 2008 after being appraised at $700,000. The library displays a photo of the picture, locked behind plastic glass and hooked to an alarm.

Janet Hartsock, whose husband, Paul, graduated from the school in 1958, said he went looking for the painting in 2012 and was told it was in another school but it wasn’t.

“The kids who purchased this painting came up with a unique gift to give their school. It seems sad to me that it is nowhere,” she said.

Benton, who died in 1975, lived and worked in Kansas City, and was one of the leaders in the Regionalism art movement. His most famous works include the 1936 mural A Social History of the State of Missouri in the state Capitol and Persephone at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Nelson officials told the newspaper the painting is not being stored there.

Jack Olsen, owner of the American Legacy Gallery he said he’s sold several Benton paintings for upward of $1 million. “His paintings don’t come along very often,” he said.

The painting’s value has been a concern for the school district for years, and officials at one point considered selling it, the newspaper reported.

Bruce Hartman, executive director of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College, said district officials asked him six or seven years ago if the museum would exhibit the painting. But he said the painting did not fit into the museum’s collection.

Michael T. White, a Kansas City lawyer and jazz musician who was in the class of ’58, said he would prefer to see it hanging at the Nelson.

“Just hiding it away is a shame,” he said.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

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