On Wednesday night, February 1972, when police officers and emergency responders in New Paltz, New York flocked to the fire, someone took a 19th-century portrait of a wealthy local couple from historic societies elsewhere in the town. I robbed the pair.
The theft lost dozens of things about three centuries ago, including prayer books, powder horns, antique guns and swords. At the time, the association’s president estimated the value of the item to be about $ 30,000, about 85 miles north of New York City, compared to the sentimental value it provided to the historic community that settled on the 17th. The numbers are getting smaller. A century of descendants of French Protestants.
Many of the items were recovered in a second-hand clothing store in Manhattan a few weeks later, but a painting from the 1820s, a moody portrait of a man with wrinkled rosy cheeks and a woman with a snuff box. Was not included.
This month — more than 50 years after the theft — FBI announces The return of the portrait to the social, historic Hugenat Street is partly due to the relentless work of two local detectives, the curator and the librarian.
Immediately after the crime happened, it was full of conspiracy. Local officials speculated that the fire in a foreign war veteran’s building was related to the theft, a theory that attracted attention in local newspapers. “The robber had a freehand on Huguenot Street,” reported Daily Freeman in Kingston, New York, while police responded to the fire.
The painting is oil-painted by renowned 19th-century portraitist Ammi Phillips, depicting Dirk D. Wincoup and his wife Anachelting, a key figure in New Paltz’s history. Wynkoop owned farmland that helped feed American settlers during the Revolutionary War. He had a darker history, which was also intertwined with the history of emerging nations. He owned a slave.
For Carol Johnson, a librarian and social councilor at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz, the theft of paintings is related to the local population and how their history relates to broader stories such as America and Ibo. I took the opportunity to learn.
When the coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020, Ms. Johnson worked with historical society curator Josephine Bradgood to create a man named Jacob Wincoup, a carpenter in Newparts, one of the first black men in the community. I made an exhibition about. To vote and who fought in the civil war. Jacob Wincoup’s father was enslaved by Dark D. Wincoup.
Mutual interest in Jacob Wincoup allowed Ms. Johnson and Ms. Bradgood to unravel the mystery of the missing painting.
Johnson and Bradgood were armed with black-and-white postcard images of the stolen portraits distributed to art dealers shortly after the theft. They compared the notes with the records, but soon ran into a disability. As far as they know, the painting was less than half a century old.
There was a break around June 2020 when I found the painting in the online catalog of Mr. Phillips’ work. The catalog states that the portrait is of an unidentified subject and was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in 2005.
“I was shocked that they were there at a glance,” Bloodgood said.
After purchasing the Sotheby’s catalog from eBay, Bradgood said the painting was actually auctioned in 2005 and sold for about $ 13,000, a small amount compared to some of Phillips’ more famous works. I confirmed that. ..
With their research in hand, the two women contacted the FBI, which has a team dedicated to art crime. According to the FBI and researchers, it summoned Sotheby’s and found the name of the buyer who was unaware that the painting had been stolen. It was unclear if the buyer received the money in return, but the researchers said the buyer agreed to turn the picture over.
“It’s very rare to have a portrait of this early figure, especially in New Paltz,” Bradgood said. “I am very pleased that Wincoup’s portraits are back in the collection, again telling a more complete story of the community and how it relates to the rich and complex history of our country. Can be interpreted for. “
Researchers have never asked Sotheby’s for help. The couple’s name was on the back of the picture. Johnson said the auction house should have been enough information to know that the painting had been stolen.
“I couldn’t understand why Sotheby’s didn’t do due diligence and didn’t look at these paintings,” Johnson said. Sotheby’s did not respond to the message asking for comment.
The lack of transparency between auction houses and the desire to protect the privacy of art buyers and sellers has created a culture of art theft, said John Jay, an associate professor of art crime at the College of Criminal Justice. One Erin Thompson said.
Dr. Thompson says auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s claim that art is often sold under sensitive conditions: death, divorce, and debt “three Ds.” According to Dr. Thompson, these are situations where auction houses are fighting for privacy.
“From my point of view, a suspicious, cynical art critic, I have the opportunity to wash stolen and looted things. It’s unclear what documents Sotheby’s received in the painting. “Who knows how compelling the paperwork is or what the auction house wants?”
The FBI could not be reached. Johnson and Bradgood said the agent told them that the statute of limitations had passed. Despite the return of the painting to the hands of historical society, which was the main goal of Johnson and Bradgood, the women have not unraveled the mystery of who painted it in the first place.
They plan to continue investigating the question as they try to find other items lost in the theft.
Jack Beg Contributed to the research.
