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unassuming couple stole de Kooning 30 years ago. hid it in their bedroom. worth $160M


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Posted

I mean, its not an open and shut case yet, they just happened to have the painting hanging in their bedroom, they were in the town the painting was stolen from on the day it was stolen, the owned the same car type that was spotted driving away, and they kinda resemble the sketches released at the time..... but the FBI hasnt closed the case yet

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/03/a-small-town-couple-left-behind-a-stolen-painting-worth-over-100-million-and-a-big-mystery/?utm_term=.9167e6c76b23

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.

After their deaths, the painting was returned to the museum. The FBI is investigating the theft.

  • Like 1
Posted
29 minutes ago, JimmyHoffa said:

So they just had it in their bedroom for 30 years and then died? What the hell was the point of stealing it? 

That will be a shitty movie. 

Well, the headline did say they were unassuming.

Posted
51 minutes ago, JimmyHoffa said:

So they just had it in their bedroom for 30 years and then died? What the hell was the point of stealing it? 

That will be a shitty movie. 

Some men just want to watch the World burn.

Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, JimmyHoffa said:

 

Let me know if you need a link to extensive state worker benefits/pension discussion thread.

 

 

he was a music teacher until he retired at 48, at which point she then became a speech teacher until she retired.  they bought one of the nicest homes in town which sat on 20 acres on the edge of a national park.  they also managed to travel to 140 countries and all 7 continents in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, taking and developing more than 13,000 slides while at it.  all with 2 kids and never having more than one teacher's salary to live on at any one time.  no known inherited family wealth.  and they still managed to end up with $1,000,000 USD in their accounts after it's all said and done.  

video

 

Edited by gsoda3
Posted
25 minutes ago, The University said:

intuitively, they were probably stealing and selling other art/whatevs but figured there was no way they could sell that painting without attracting attention.

or batshit crazy larcenists.

you are prob right about dealing in stolen art.  

or, my guess, they were russian spys.

 

Quote

Museum officials, however, told the Arizona Republic that the painting only appears to have been reframed once during the 31 years it was missing, suggesting it had only had one owner during that time.

Something else doesn’t add up. Jerry and Rita Alter worked in public schools for most of their careers. Yet they somehow managed to travel to 140 countries and all seven continents, documenting their trips with tens of thousands of photos.

 

Posted
3 hours ago, crash_davis said:

you are prob right about dealing in stolen art.  

or, my guess, they were russian spys.

 

 

Trying to tie this back to Donald Trump, eh? My God the CR never stops. ;) 

Posted (edited)

Apparently he had some short stories published including one about a mother and daughter that stole some major emeralds and kept them in a bedroom for their own viewing pleasure.  Sketches of the couple from the heist apparently look more like dad dressed as a woman, who was the distractor, and their son was the male that stole the painting.  No one knows the location of the son or daughter.

Edited by ShaggyBevo RIP
Posted
On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 10:53 AM, JimmyHoffa said:

So they just had it in their bedroom for 30 years and then died? What the hell was the point of stealing it? 

That will be a shitty movie. 

Not if they make it into a porn movie.

Posted
On 8/9/2018 at 10:54 AM, gsoda3 said:

he was a music teacher until he retired at 48, at which point she then became a speech teacher until she retired.  they bought one of the nicest homes in town which sat on 20 acres on the edge of a national park.  they also managed to travel to 140 countries and all 7 continents in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, taking and developing more than 13,000 slides while at it.  all with 2 kids and never having more than one teacher's salary to live on at any one time.  no known inherited family wealth.  and they still managed to end up with $1,000,000 USD in their accounts after it's all said and done.  

video

 

Haha, they probably kept the teaching gigs for the health insurance.

Posted
On 8/8/2018 at 10:53 AM, JimmyHoffa said:

So they just had it in their bedroom for 30 years and then died? What the hell was the point of stealing it? 

That will be a shitty movie. 

You goddamn Philistine.  No appreciation for art like these fine people. 

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