J. M. Pastor/European Pressphoto Agency
"Children With a Cart" was recovered intact after a lawyer contacted the F.B.I.
{Update from Pinched Goya... }
via NYTimes:
A Phone Call Leads the F.B.I. to a Stolen Goya
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: November 21, 2006
[...] Officials said the painting was recovered unharmed Saturday in central New Jersey
after a lawyer called the F.B.I. and told investigators where they
could find it while saying that he could not tell them anything else
about the theft.
As of late yesterday, no arrests had been made. Because the investigation remains active, officials would not say exactly where or how the painting had been found.
Contrary to earlier law enforcement theories that the theft was carried out by insiders, they did say it appeared that the thieves probably had no idea what kind of art-historical loot they had stumbled upon when they broke into the truck overnight in a parking lot at a Howard Johnson Inn near Bartonsville, Pa.
"This time of year, close to Christmas, they probably thought they’d found a truck filled with PlayStations and broke in and started looking for the biggest-looking box," said Steve Siegel, an F.B.I. agent who serves as the spokesman for the bureau’s Newark office. "Basically, it's a target-of-opportunity typical New Jersey cargo theft. There are literally predators — for lack of a better word — who when they see a tractor-trailer or a cargo vehicle parked for any length of time start snooping around." [...]
