The FBI lately recovered two work stolen 4 many years in the past from the College of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Artwork in Taos.
Victor Higgins’s oil portray Aspens (c. 1932) and Joseph Henry Sharp’s portrait Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Costume (c. 1915) have been stolen in March 1985 from the establishment, which was “primarily a public library on the time with a museum on the second ground,” in response to a press launch from the FBI.
In response to the College, the FBI investigation was prompted by a cellphone name from Los Angeles–primarily based investigative reporter Lou Schachter to Harwood Museum of Artwork government director Juniper Leherissey in late 2023. Schachter stated he had uncovered “substantial proof” connecting the theft of the 2 work with the theft of Willem de Kooning’s Lady-Ocher (1954–55) from the College of Arizona Museum of Artwork. That art work was returned to the college in 2017 after being a chilly case for 32 years, and a 2022 documentary profiling the thieves behind the artwork theft—Rita and Jerry Alter of Cliff, New Mexico—included a nonetheless photograph displaying the stolen work by Higgins and Sharp within the couple’s lounge.
That decision prompted Leherissey to steer an Artwork Restoration Process Pressure targeted on gathering extra proof, together with dozens of paperwork and notices concerning the thefts on nationwide and worldwide stolen artwork lists, which was ultimately offered to FBI Particular Agent Susan Garst on March 25, 2024. Lower than a month later, the FBI confirmed it might tackle the museum’s case in April of final yr.
Joseph Henry Sharp, Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Costume, c. 1915, oil on canvas, 18 x 12 in. Reward of Learn Mullan. Assortment of Harwood Museum of Artwork. Courtesy UNM Harwood Museum of Artwork
Joseph Henry Sharp
“On account of Schachter’s earlier investigations, it was confirmed that each Harwood work have been bought in 2018 by the Scottsdale Public sale Home: Higgins’s Aspens bought for $93,600 and Sharp’s Oklahoma Cherokee aka Indian Boy in Full Costume bought for $52,650. It’s noteworthy that the Scottsdale Public sale Home in its 2018 public sale catalog marketed the work with modified titles as Fall Panorama and Indian in a Struggle Bonnet, which aren’t cited in any documentation because the artists’ titles,” in response to a narrative revealed by the College of New Mexico concerning the theft.
The work have been positioned, recovered, and returned to the Harwood Museum of Artwork on Could 12, and have been publicly unveiled at a press occasion on June 6.
“It’s a pleasure—and a profound aid—to welcome these works by Victor Higgins and Joseph Henry Sharp again to the Harwood,” Leherissey stated in a press assertion. Leherissey was in elementary college when the theft occurred in 1985, in addition to a frequent customer to the Harwood Public Library and its small artwork gallery.“ This homecoming means a lot—not simply to our employees, board, and members, however to the whole arts and cultural group of Taos. We are able to’t wait to rejoice their return with everybody.”
Notably, the thefts of Aspens and Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Costume occurred 9 years earlier than The Theft of Main Art work (18 U.S.C. 668) was handed in 1994. The statute made it a federal offense to steal any object of cultural heritage from a museum or library.
The Harwood Museum of Artwork is now exhibiting Aspens and Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Costume, together with different works by the 2 painters from its assortment, in its new present “The Return of Taos Treasures.”
Sharp was a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, of which Higgins was additionally an influential member. Higgins was additionally a member of Harwood’s founding Board in 1923.
