Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: A painting by impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir is now back in the possession of a Maryland museum—some 60 years after it was stolen. The painting, titled On the Shore of the Seine, resurfaced when a woman who claimed she purchased it at a flea market brought it to an auction house in Virginia. Special Agent Greg Horner of the FBI’s Art Crime Team says his investigation revealed the true owner was the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Gregg Horner: The museum still had the catalog card which described the Renoir and actually had notations on there—the date it had been stolen and the date that they had reported it to the police.

Halpern: Horner says documentation which showed the rightful owner of the 1879 painting was key in this case. The museum’s senior curator of European Painting and Sculpture explains her relief now that the mystery of the missing painting is solved.

Katy Rothkopf: We’re thrilled to have it back and thrilled to have the assistance of the FBI in this amazing return.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern of the FBI, and you’ve been listening to Gotcha, the Bureau’s closed case of the week.

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