The pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's black and white “Electric Cord†painting, which disappeared 42 years ago, has turned up in a New York City warehouse, The Associated Press reported.
The painting was reported stolen after it was sent out to be cleaned by the gallery owner Leo Castelli in 1970 and never returned.
The painting - which depicts a tightly wound electrical cord and whose value is estimated at $4 million - re-emerged last week when the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation notified Mr. Castelli's widow, Barbara Castelli, that someone was trying to sell it.
According to a court filing in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, James Goodman, a gallery owner, last week called the Lichtenstein Foundation to say he had been told by a “third party†that the painting was at Hayes Storage and asked if the foundation would authenticate the work, The New York Post reported.
Mr. Goodman told The Post that he had no idea that the painting might have been stolen, and that the current owners said they had an invoice showing the piece was purchased from Mr. Castelli, who died in 1999.
The court filing says the painting was recently on display at a museum in Colombia and that Ms. Castelli was “deeply concerned†that the painting may disappear again. Justice O. Peter Sherwood, signed an order barring the Manhattan warehouse from selling or moving the painting until a hearing next week.
Mr. Castelli, who mounted Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition at his gallery in 1962, bought “Electric Cord,†in the 1960s for $750, according to The Post. Lichtenstein died in 1997.
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