This dossier links a guilty plea involving purported Pollock and de Kooning works with a separate sentencing report on forged American art. It keeps the artists’ names apart from the people prosecuted, and distinguishes a plea from a sentence rather than treating every report as a new conviction.
4 reports · Source dates: 1 Dec 2014 — 6 Jan 2023
Each entry reflects its source on the stated date. A historical theft report does not mean a work remains missing. Attributions, allegations and decisions remain distinct; this dossier does not authenticate artworks.
Not documented in this record: inscriptions & markings · subject.
Edward J. Gallagher Jr. donated it to UAMA.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checkedManzanita Ridge dealers bought it from Jerome and Rita Alter’s estate.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checkedThe dealers returned it to UAMA.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checkedReturned to Tucson after conservation at the Getty.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checkedOnly stages supported by the cited sources are shown. This list is not a complete chain of ownership.
Identification details follow the Object ID categories where documented. Ownership history is recorded separately; this documentation is not an authentication or a certificate of ownership.
Police found five paintings, including works by Elaine de Kooning and Jane Freilicher, in a Lakewood hotel room on 6 January. They had been stolen from a vehicle in Boulder in December 2022 while in transit. Photo of two of the recovered works: Boulder Police Department via The Art Newspaper.
Getty announced that Woman-Ochre (1954–1955) would be exhibited from 7 June after extensive conservation. Cut from its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985, it was recovered and returned to that museum in August 2017 after an estate-sale purchase in New Mexico. This 2022 report concerns restoration and renewed public display, not a new recovery.
Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz received imprisonment for selling dozens of forgeries attributed to artists including de Kooning, Franz Kline and Joan Mitchell, using aliases and fabricated provenance.
John Re pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme causing approximately $2.5 million in losses. He fabricated provenance for works presented as paintings by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Sentencing was pending at publication.
