23-05-2025
Stolen paintings returned to Harwood Museum of Art in Taos 40 years after heist
TAOS, N.M. (KRQE) – It was a case of disappearing artwork that went cold and was nearly forgotten. Now, decades later, two missing paintings are back in their rightful home inside a northern New Mexico museum. The missing paintings vanished from a Taos art museum 40 years ago. It turns out those pieces were in the same New Mexico home where another valuable stolen painting was found years ago.
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'It's unbelievable, really, that they finally made their way back after being lost for 40 years,' said Harwood Museum of Art Executive Director Juniper Leherissey.
Decades later, the mystery is over. Two paintings, stolen off the walls of The Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, are now back home. The stolen paintings include Victor Higgins' 'Aspens' and 'Oklahoma Cheyenne' by Joseph Henry Sharp.
The paintings spent decades on the wall of a home near Silver City. The museum said the now-deceased couple who owned the home are those behind the 1985 'Harwood Heist.'
'These individuals came into the museum, created a distraction, one woman in a wheelchair, the man in a trench coat went upstairs, and these works are not huge, so basically ripped them off the wall,' added Leherissey.
That couple, Rita and Jerry Alter, made national headlines in 2017 after an estate sale company discovered the multi-million dollar piece, Willem De Kooning's 'Woman-Ocher' which was taken from the University of Arizona Museum of Art. 'We really don't know how many works they stole, but they did take advantage of small institutions,' said Leherissey.
With the help of a historical true crime writer, the two Harwood Museum of Art paintings are back home. In 2023, Lou Schachter noticed the 'Harwood Heist' was similar to the De Kooning theft.
'I followed the story of the Alters' theft of the De Kooning painting in Tucson, and I got inspired to see if the Alters had stolen any other paintings. It seemed weird that they would have stolen just one,' said Schachter.
After Schachter's discovery, the museum contacted the FBI. Investigators found the paintings were sold by the Scottsdale Auction House under different titles in 2018. Schachter said, 'I think it's a gift to anyone who goes to an art museum, but particularly those in Taos, New Mexico, who have a great art museum and incredible works, and these are two that belong, home. Where they were.'
While the museum is now in custody of the paintings, they'll be officially unveiled to the public in a museum event on June 6 at 4 p.m. The couple who were in possession of the paintings were never charged with a crime, as they died before anyone made the discovery.
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