Posted on 08/05/2018 9:50:52 AM PDT by BBell
Jerry and Rita Alter kept to themselves. They were a lovely couple, neighbors in the small New Mexico town of Cliff would later tell reporters. But no one knew much about them.
They may have been hiding a decades-old secret, pieces of which are now just emerging.
Among them:
After the couple died, a stolen Willem de Kooning painting with an estimated worth of $160 million was discovered in their bedroom.
More than 30 years ago, that same painting disappeared the day after Thanksgiving from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson.
And Wednesday, the Arizona Republic reported that a family photo had surfaced, showing that the day before the painting vanished, the couple was, in fact, in Tucson.
The next morning, a man and a woman would walk into the museum and then leave 15 minutes later. A security guard had unlocked the museum’s front door to let a staff member into the lobby, curator Olivia Miller told NPR. The couple followed. Since the museum was about to open for the day, the guard let them in.
The man walked up to the museum’s second floor while the woman struck up a conversation with the guard. A few minutes later, he came back downstairs, and the two abruptly left, according to the NPR interview and other media reports.
Sensing that something wasn’t right, the guard walked upstairs. There, he saw an empty frame where de Kooning’s “Woman-Ochre” had hung.
At the time, the museum had no surveillance cameras. Police found no fingerprints. One witness described seeing a rust-color sports car drive away but didn’t get the license plate number. For 31 years, the frame remained empty.
In 2012, Jerry Alter passed away. His widow, Rita Alter, died five years later at 81.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Thanks for the sarcasm tag. I got similarly reamed a few years ago when I innocently questioned the genius of Jackson Pollock. And no sarcasm was involved. Nothing is quite so effective at removing a sense of humor or tolerance as a degree in Art History.
That is what I think. I wonder if other art or maybe even artifacts have gone missing during their travels. They traveled a lot so that would be hard to track, but doubt they did another in the area where they lived. If they had it would seem the authorities would know by now.
It is indeed a mystery.
Who knows? There may be a book and movie about these two if it comes out that they were two average people, school system at that, who spent their summers jetting around the world pulling heists. It would make a good flick if it were true.
Don't know how true it is. Found this though:
How Salvador Dalí Accidentally Sabotaged His Own Market for Prints
Looks more like some kind of alien insect to me.
160 million for the rag he used to clean his brushes? How much do his actual paintings go for?
Hehehe...it is posts like THAT which prompted my request to be added to your ping list...:)
I enjoyed the remake...Rene Russo was smoking hot in it...:)
You can like what you like. Or not. *I* don’t get the featured painting, but that’s me. Of course, if one can create something and have someone else willingly part with large piles of cash for it, all the more power to ya. Things are worth what someone, anyone, is willing to pay for it.
Bump
Amy Madigan was great in the movie; so was Ed Harris, and the time and care he spent on it. Great on the life of Pollock. I get more into the space and form of his paintings in my classes. What could be called art theory.
Well, I still have a sense of humor, but I don’t have a PhD. (I have other art degrees, just not the PhD). Not sure about a sense of humor with many academics lately. I’m about to get out of the business.
$160 million dollars for that piece of junk?
My kids did better artwork than that in kindergarten.
All of my leftist progressive relatives took political science courses in college. They think I'm dumb because I don't get Marxism.
I don't care what you study. That painting is not art.
The painting is butt-ugly.
The more I understand that type painting, the more I find it repulsive.
Why is Modern Art so Bad? by PragerU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI07egoefc
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