The auction of a $7 flea-market find, a Renoir painting (see Kovels Komments, September 19, 2012), has been canceled because it was learned the painting was stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1951. Investigators are looking for information about the theft, the subsequent insurance payment made to the museum, and the journey of the painting from the museum in 1951 to a flea market in 2010. There may be a legal dispute to decide who owns the painting now.
Seems to me that since the painting has been missing for 62 years, the museum was reimbursed for the loss, the insurance company has long since archived the claim, that the person who found and purchased it from the flea market ought to be benevolently declared the legal owner and allowed to auction it. The painting would get a good home and what an excellent thing to do for all concerned. Not to mention some very good PR in these tough times… A happy ending to what could possibly be a prolonged and tedious exercise in red tape and who-done-it.
I think the insurance company would have the leagel rights to the painting, But the one who bought it should get a handsome reward for finding it.
I’d start by grilling the person who brought the painting to the flea market in the first place. . . assuming they have his name and address. I also cana’t believe that during those 62 years – NO ONE SAW the frame of the painting and QUESTIONED from where it had been acquired!