Ocher Woman, a painting by Willem de Kooning, is prepared for examination by University of Arizona Museum of Art staff Nathan Saxton, left, and Kristen Schmidt in Tucson, Arizona, in August 2017. After the painting was stolen in 1985 from of the Arizona Museum, the staff hoped that one day it would appear. The oil painting is finally back home and ready to be displayed. It will be the centerpiece of an exhibit that opens October 8, 2022, through May 2023 at the University of Arizona Museum of Art.
University of Arizona
The day after Thanksgiving in 1984, a woman distracted security guards at the University of Arizona Museum of Art with conversation while her partner was busy in the upstairs gallery.
The man cut “Ocher Woman”, a 1955 abstract painting Willem de Kooning out of the frame, rolled it up and left with it, according to a university press release.
A painting now valued at up to 160 million dollars, has been missing for nearly 40 years, KRQE reports. It was found among the dead woman’s belongings in 2017.
“We received a call from a man named David Van Ocker who lives in Silver City, New Mexico. And he purchased the painting from the estate and immediately wanted to return it to the museum,” Olivia Miller, interim director and curator of exhibitions at the museum, told the TV channel.
The painting hung outside a door in the woman’s home until Van Ocker, an antique dealer, purchased it after her death, the university said.
The museum recovered and authenticated the painting after Van Ocker contacted the university after learning of the search for the missing painting.
“Then we could finally breathe a sigh of relief,” Miller said in the release. But during the absence, the picture suffered a lot.
In 2019, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles agreed to restore The Ocher Woman. The work took several years.
“The painting came to us in very poor condition,” said Ulrich Birkmeier, senior conservator of paintings at the Getty Museum. “The violent manner in which it was ripped from the lining caused severe paint peeling and tearing, not to mention the damage caused by the blade used to cut it from the frame.”
After some time on display at the Getty Museum, The Ocher Woman is now back at the University of Arizona, where it will return to public display on Saturday, October 8.
“It is such a triumph to see this jewel of our art collection finally return home to the University of Arizona Museum of Art, which is part of what makes our campus a true art destination,” said Robert S. Robbins, university president. , said the release.
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