After 42 Years, a Lichtenstein Goes Home

In 2006 the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation put an image of a lost painting by Lichtenstein, “Electric Cord,” on its holiday greeting card. The foundation used the occasion to ask for help in tracking down the work, and the fruit of that effort was on display on Tuesday when Preet Bharara, United States Attorney in Manhattan, finally returned “Electric Cord,” gone for 42 years, to its owner.

The art dealer Leo Castelli had bought the painting, a 1961 work that was one of Lichtenstein's first efforts at Pop Art, for $750 and sent it out in 1970 to be cleaned by an art restorer, Daniel Goldreyer. Soon after, Mr. Goldreyer told Mr. Castelli that the painting had mysteriously disappeared from the premises. In July, “Electric Cord” was recognized when it turned up in a storage facility in New York. It had been sent there by Quinta Galeria in Bogotá, Colombia, where Mr. Goldreyer's widow, Sally, using an assumed name, had tried to sell it, according to the United States Attorney's office. Ms. Goldreyer said she had found the painting in the locker of a former employee after her husband died in 2009 and was trying to sell it on behalf of a friend.

Mr. Bharara declined to comment on whether a criminal investigation was in the works. Meanwhile, Mr. Castelli's widow, Barbara, was on hand Tuesday to pick up the long-lost painting - now valued at $4 million. Asked what she would do with it Ms. Castelli replied, “I think I'm going to hang it up in my home.”