To answer this question, we will set and solve a linear equation.
Let x be the original price of the painting, with the given information we can set the following equation:
[tex]2x+500=16000.[/tex]Subtracting 500 from the above equation we get:
[tex]2x=16000-500=15500.[/tex]Dividing by 2 we get:
[tex]\begin{gathered} \frac{2x}{2}=\frac{15500}{2}, \\ x=7750. \end{gathered}[/tex]Therefore, the original price of the painting was
[tex]7750[/tex]dollars.
Answer: $7750.
