Almost 32 Years Later, a Stolen Willem de Kooning Returns Home

Last week, the University of Arizona announced that Woman-Ochre (1954–1955), part of Willem de Kooning’s Woman series, had been not only found, but returned by the three co-owners of Manzanita Ridge Furniture & Antiques.

Manzanita’s David Van Auker, Buck Burns, and Rick Johnson had purchased the painting for an undisclosed amount as part of an estate. Thinking the artwork was “cool and unique,” Burns told the New York Times, it was placed in the shop window. After several customers noted its uncanny likeness to a de Kooning, the trio returned the painting to the University of Arizona Museum of Art on suspicion that it was the long-lost masterpiece.

When the painting was stolen from the university museum 31 years ago, it was valued at approximately US$600,000, artnet News reported. In 2015 (three decades following the notorious event), UANews published an article estimating its worth at around US$160 million, though at the time, its whereabouts were still unknown.

“We didn’t pay anywhere near $160 million for it,” Burns told artnet News, and considered the turn of events a “happy coincidence.” The museum’s conservator, Nancy Odegaard, subsequently determined the painting’s authenticity.

According to the New York Times, the painting was publicly unveiled at a news conference on August 14. While it remains in “relatively good condition considering the theft, there is damage to be fixed before it can go back on the walls,” and will therefore be sent for restoration before its grand reappearance.

“There’s this sense of relief and happiness,” chief of the University of Arizona Police Department, Brian Seastone, commented in a statement. “It’s a sense of calm. It’s back, it’s home, it’s where it should be. We know the art is worth an awful lot of money, but the story behind it is priceless.”