It is difficult to sell a stolen painting, even if it has been missing for 30 years. Thieves often learn the hard way that art, especially a painting by a famous artist, is usually pictured and identified in museum records, libraries, catalogs, books and archives. A gallery in Washington D.C. refused to take a painting on consignment because the owner didn’t have the proper paperwork showing provenance, the documented history of the work’s ownership. The gallery owner suggested calling the FBI for help. The painting’s past was known, and it had been reported as stolen in 1988. It couldn’t be sold by the thief, so he made a deal with a man from Maryland, who took the painting and attempted to find a buyer. After the deal fell apart, he kept the painting in a box in his attic until 2011, when he tried again, unsuccessfully, to sell it. He tried yet again in 2017, when the FBI identified it as a stolen 1911 Chagall painting. Agents were able to return the painting, called “Othello and Desdemona,” to the proper estate which plans to auction it to benefit some non-profit organizations. The insurance company that paid the theft claim was reimbursed. The thief, who had been convicted of other unrelated art thefts and served time, and the others who stored the painting and tried to sell it were not charged because the statute of limitations has now expired.

 

Photo: FBI