Stolen art found in Spielberg's study

[milmor_1]

Stolen art found in Spielberg's study
Rockwell painting was bought 'in innocence'

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 04 March 2007

A Norman Rockwell painting reported stolen more than 30 years ago has shown up in the most unexpected of places: in Steven Spielberg's private collection.

The Hollywood film director is not suspected of wrongdoing. In fact, it was his staff who contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not the other way around, after an agency bulletin went out seeking clues on the whereabouts of Russian Schoolroom, a painting depicting a classful of children looking at a bust of Lenin.

Spielberg, a major Rockwell collector, bought the painting from an art dealer in 1989 without realising its provenance. "He's an absolutely unknowing victim in this," FBI Special Agent Chris Calarco told the Los Angeles Times after inspecting the painting at Spielberg's offices on the Universal Studios lot on Friday.

The painting had in fact been stolen from a small gallery in Clayton, Missouri, in a night burglary in 1973. It did not surface again until it was sold at auction in New Orleans in 1988 for about $70,000, 10 per cent of its present estimated value.

The FBI's art crime unit took a renewed interest in it in 2004, when it traced the painting to a Norman Rockwell sale in New York in 1989. FBI agents said they probably would have traced it to Spielberg if his staff had not contacted them first.

It is not clear what will happen to the painting. For the moment, though, it is staying put. "I just advised them to hold on to it," Special Agent Calarco said. "It's safe there."

Independent Online Edition > Americas

[Woodmonkey]

I heard about this on the news. Good that Spielberg's staff discovered it first and contacted the FBI and not the other way around.

[conlor]

I hadn't heard the part about it being in Spielberg's collection. He can pay for it, if the rightful owners are willing to sell.