Flea Market Renoir May Have Been Stolen

September 27, 2012, 4:55 pm

By PATRICIA COHEN

A flea market shopper who seemed to have snagged the deal of the century by paying $7 for what is apparently a Renoir worth more than $75,000 may have bought stolen goods, The Washington Post reported. The sale of the painting, “Paysage Bords de Seine,” scheduled for this Saturday at the Potomack Company in Alexandria, Va., has been postponed as the F.B.I. conducts an investigation.

According to papers uncovered by a Washington Post reporter, the painting had been on loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art as early as 1937. Museum officials subsequently said documents showed that the Renoir was stolen in November 1951, soon after its owner, Sadie A. May, died and bequeathed her art collection to the mu seum. The auction house had checked the Art Loss Register, the world's largest private database of stolen and lost art, before putting the painting on sale, but it was not listed. The museum had been paid $2,500 by its insurance company for the painting.

Elizabeth Wainstein, the auction house's owner, said in a statement: “Potomack is relieved this came to light in a timely manner as we do not want to sell any item without clear title.”

Doreen Bolger, the museum's director, said officials there had only seen photographs of the painting now held by the auction house. But, she said, “We're assuming that it is an original.”