The officials of an Arizona museum held onto the hope that a Willem de Kooning painting that was brazenly stolen in 1985 and was worth millions would eventually be found. However, no one could have foreseen that Woman-Ochre would return thanks to the generosity of strangers in a nearby state.
Olivia Miller, interim director and exhibitions curator of the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson, stated, “I would kind of picture what would that look like.” Would it simply appear as a puzzling package in the mail or something similar? … I definitely didn’t anticipate making friends through it.
The Dutch-American abstract expressionist’s 1955 oil work is at last back in its original location and prepared for display. The University of Arizona Museum of Art will feature it as the focal point of a lengthy show beginning on October 8 and running through May. The show will detail the entire incident of the theft and its recovery in 2017 via New Mexico. It has spent the last two years being restored and displayed at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The painting will be back where it was taken, but it will be protected by a case.
The robbery happened the morning after Thanksgiving, and it almost seemed like something from a heist film. According to the curator at the time, a man and a woman arrived to the museum when there was only a security guard and students at the front desk.
While the male walked to an upper gallery, the woman engaged the guard in conversational chitchat. Police claimed that he just cut the painting out of the frame. The canvas’s edges were still secured. The whole heist took fifteen minutes. The painting was folded up before he went.
Both a security camera system and leads were absent.
The museum showed the empty frame at a press conference in 2015, the 30th anniversary of the heist, in an effort to attract leads.
When David Van Auker, his partner Buck Burns, and their buddy Rick Johnson purchased the artwork and other artefacts from an estate sale in Cliff, New Mexico, in August 2017, they broke the case. The three are the owners of Manzanita Ridge, a furniture and antique shop located in Silver City, 64 kilometres distant. Three other customers said it resembled a genuine de Kooning when they saw it after it was returned to the shop.
Van Auker looked something up on Google because he was curious. That directed him to a report on the heist from 2015. They sought to get in touch with Miller, the University of Arizona, and even the FBI right away, he claimed. But they received no prompt response.
Van Auker got worried about protecting what might actually be the $100 million picture.
He remembered, “I sat up all night with three weapons and the picture behind a sofa. “I was afraid someone would come and kill us for this painting,” said the artist.
He even voicemailed Miller to make it clear that he wasn’t looking for a reward or to take advantage of the circumstance. Miller wants to include the message in the show because she thought it was cute.
“My favourite part was when he said, ‘Put this on record,’ or something like. I want the painting returned to you. Just come and retrieve the painting if it’s yours or the university’s, she replied, grinning.
The following day, Miller and a university conservator drove the three hours from Tucson to Silver City. They determined there were sufficient clues to return the painting for for investigation. It was certified an authentic de Kooning by a conservator.
Its return sparked an FBI investigation. However, “after a thorough review,” the case is now regarded as closed, according to Brooke Brennan, a spokeswoman for the FBI Phoenix office.
Jerry and Rita Alter owned the estate from which the painting was retrieved. The piece of art had been hung in a bedroom. Additionally, family members came upon a photograph that showed the couple on Thanksgiving Day in 1985 in Tucson. Both Jerry Alter and his wife passed away in 2012. They were never identified as suspects by the authorities.
Miller and the couple’s nephew had a meeting earlier this year. He didn’t think they could have done such a crime when the story initially broke, in his opinion.
After his initial amazement subsided, Miller added, “he can now see that they might have been the ones who took the picture.”
Van Auker occasionally considers what may have happened if the picture had ended up in different hands in New Mexico. Playing a part in its comeback never gets old.
Without a doubt, he wouldn’t exchange his past five years of experiences for any amount of cash. When customers were moved by their deeds, business at his store would sometimes double or triple. At gatherings in Tucson at the Getty Museum, he, Burns, and Johnson have received accolades as heroes.
Miller and the rest of the museum personnel have remained their friends, and they have even welcomed them to stay at their guest house in Silver City.
Not unexpected given what Miller was told by Van Auker when she left with the picture in 2017.
“I told Olivia that we were now bonded for life. “Yup, I know that,” she answered as she turned to face me.
(source : AP)
