Recovered Motherwell painting
In 1978, several dozen works by the Modernist master Robert Motherwell went missing when he hired a moving company to transport his art from one storage site to another. After 40 years, one of the missing works, “Untitled, 1967″ (a 69 x 92 inch work valued at $1M) has been found.
According to reports, an unnamed man was helping his mother clean out her garage when he noticed a large canvas with Motherwell’s name on the back. After searching the internet he contacted the Dedalus Foundation (an organization Motherwell founded in 1981 to educate the public on modern art) in the hopes that it would turn out to be authentic and then sell it. Sadly for him, the foundation contacted the FBI. They, in turn, determined that the man’s father (who passed away in the 1990s) worked for the moving company when the original trove of paintings went missing. Hopefully, this will give them some fresh leads and they can find some of the other stolen works.
As you might guess, the painting was recovered by the FBI and returned to the Dedalus Foundation.
Source: Missing for Four Decades, a Stolen Motherwell Painting Turns Up
Source: Painting thought stolen 40 years ago returns to New York