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‘To see them here is surreal': Stolen paintings rehung at Taos museum
TAOS, N.M. (KRQE) – Four decades in the making, a New Mexico mystery has finally come to a close. Two paintings that were ripped off the walls and stolen from a northern New Mexico museum in the 80s returned home Friday.
'It's amazing to have these paintings back in Taos. It's something that we never imagined would happen. To see them here is surreal. We're pleased that they're back,' said Juniper Leherissey, executive director of the Hardwood Museum of Art.
The oil paintings 'Aspens' by Victor Higgins and 'Oklahoma Cheyenne' by Joseph Henry Sharp were hung back inside the museum on Friday, forty years after they were taken from the museum.
'It was a blow to me, personally. On the other hand, these things happen,' said David Witt, who was the museum curator when the paintings vanished in 1985.
So, how did they go missing? Rita and Jerry Alter, who are now dead, are believed to have stolen the art after creating a distraction and fleeing with the paintings. The Alters were never caught or charged with a crime; however, the paintings spent decades in their home near Silver City.
'Part of the reason they weren't discovered is that they were hanging, literally hanging, in the living room of Rita and Jerry Alter's home,' explained Leherissey.
After Rita Alter died in 2017, an antique dealer unknowingly bought another stolen art piece from the Alter's estate sale: Willem De Kooning's 'Woman-Ocher', which was taken from the University of Arizona Museum of Art.
'It wasn't until the estate was disband that they even were in the public eye,' Leherissey said.
The two missing paintings returned home in part thanks to writer Lou Schachter, who linked the 'Harwood Heist' to the De Kooning theft after watching news stories and a documentary on the case.
'It's a wonderful feeling to be part of this celebration where things that were stolen 40 years ago are back home where they belong,' said Schachter.
Past and present museum staff were thankful to see the works of art return home to their rightful place for everyone to see.
'It all has a good ending in the end. An unexpected one for me,' Witt said.
The paintings will remain on public display through Sept. 7.
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