A bedroom door. A missing de Kooning.
A painting cut from a museum frame reappeared thirty-two years later in an estate sale. The room where it had hung was almost as startling as the discovery.
Two visitors, one empty frame
On 29 November 1985, a man and a woman entered the University of Arizona Museum of Art. While the woman distracted a guard, the man cut Woman-Ochre from its frame. They left within minutes. The museum retained the cut edges, physical fragments of a picture whose central image had gone elsewhere. For more than three decades, the gap remained. [1]
What the bedroom door concealed
In 2017, antique dealers bought items from the estate of Rita and Jerome Alter, former schoolteachers in Cliff, New Mexico. Getty’s account places the painting in their bedroom, where the open door concealed it. Once displayed in the dealers’ shop, it attracted questions. Research connected it to the museum theft. A domestic furnishing had become an identifiable missing masterpiece. [2]
The picture could testify
The dealers contacted the museum, and conservators matched the canvas to the surviving edges. Its injuries became evidence of identity. Getty later repaired torn fabric, secured flaking paint and removed discoloured varnish. The restored work returned to Arizona in September 2022. Recovery answered where the painting was; it did not produce a criminal conviction explaining every stage of its journey. [1][3][4]
Recovered and restored
Recovered in 2017, conserved by Getty and returned to the University of Arizona in September 2022. Getty’s 2022 account reported that no one had been prosecuted. Discovery in the Alter home is not a criminal judgment identifying the thieves.
Sources checked 9 November 2026.Artwork Details & DocumentationIdentification, ownership history and supporting records
Woman-Ochre
- Artwork title
- Woman-OchreUniversity of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked
- Object type
- PaintingUniversity of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked
- Maker / attribution
- Willem de KooningUniversity of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked
- Creation date / period
- 1954–1955University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked
- Materials & technique
- Oil on canvasUniversity of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked
- Measurements
- 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm)Getty Conservation Institute · Analysis of Woman-Ochre ↗ · checked
- Distinguishing features
- Cut from its frame and torn from its lining canvas during the theft.Getty · Conserving Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre ↗ · checked
Not documented in this record: inscriptions & markings · subject.
Documented ownership history
- 1958
Edward J. Gallagher Jr. donated it to UAMA.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked - 2017
Manzanita Ridge dealers bought it from Jerome and Rita Alter’s estate.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked - 2017
The dealers returned it to UAMA.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked - 2022
Returned to Tucson after conservation at the Getty.
University of Arizona Museum of Art · Woman-Ochre’s Journey ↗ · checked
Only stages supported by the cited sources are shown. This list is not a complete chain of ownership.
Record sources
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.
Sources & further reading
- Getty · The theft, recovery and conservation, 26 May 2022 ↗
- Getty Conservation Institute · The painting in the Alter home ↗
- University of Arizona · The restored painting comes home, 27 September 2022 ↗
- Getty Conservation Institute · Technical study and conservation record ↗
An original narrative synthesis of the sources above. Images depict the artworks; they are not reconstructions of the thefts.
