Painting presumed stolen 40 years ago back in place
NEW YORK — A painting by the modernist master Robert Motherwell that disappeared from a New York warehouse in 1978 and was presumed stolen has been returned after 40 years.
U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman unveiled the 1967 painting, Untitled, at a Manhattan news conference this week, where he was joined by FBI officials who helped return the artwork to the foundation that owns most of Motherwell’s works.
The 175-by-234-centimetre painting was one of several dozen that went missing in 1978 from a warehouse where they were being stored.
Authorities said the painting was found last year in a garage in upstate New York by the son of a man who worked for the moving and storage company that Motherwell had hired. The New York Times reported that the man was helping his mother sort through some belongings when he noticed the artist’s name on the back of the canvas. The man searched the internet for information about Motherwell and contacted the Dedalus Foundation, which Motherwell set up in 1981 to educate the public about modern art.
The foundation contacted the FBI, which determined the man’s father had worked at the moving company when the artwork disappeared.
The man who worked for the moving company died in the 1990s. Authorities don’t believe the son knew the painting was stolen.