Painting stolen from New York gallery 60 years ago turns up in English town

A painting stolen from a New York City art gallery that has been lost for almost six decades has finally turned up in a village in northern England.

Art conservationists are rejoicing after Flower Market Madeline by celebrated French painter Edouard Léon Cortès turned up in Mawdesley, England, when a small art dealer was offering it up for sale, a statement by Art Recovery International said.

The painting, which depicts a flower market in the style of other street artworks by Mr Cortès, can be traced back through a number of hands before it was re-discovered.

Lancashire-based Carnes Fine Art bought the artwork in November 2022 from Capes Dunn auction house in Manchester, England, who said that they were given it by an estate in Cheshire that same year, who also confirmed they acquired the scenic painting from MacConnal-Mason Gallery in London.

Before the painting’s international adventure, it was originally displayed in a collection owned by the Arnot art dealer family in New York.

Art Recovery International, a private company that specialises in recovering stolen or missing pieces of art around the world to institutions and the art market, set out to negotiate the painting’s return to its rightful owner.

open image in gallery

Christopher A Marinello, the founder of the company and a lawyer, spent several months contacting various parties who were involved in the sale of this painting to try and convince them to return the flower market artwork.

Luckily, most parties were cooperative in reversing the sale.

“We are very grateful to Bradley Carnes, Capes Dunn, and their vendor for releasing this stolen painting unconditionally to the Arnot Gallery,” Mr Marinello explained.

“While in this instance, we were able to convince many of the parties to reimburse the other, eventually, there will be those who are out of luck.  I cannot stress enough the importance of performing due diligence and authentication checks which would have uncovered this stolen painting decades earlier.”

While it is unclear how and when the painting turned up in the London-based gallery, experts have a good understanding of how the painting came to flee the US.

In 1966, Louis Edelman worked as a gallery manager and salesman for the Herbert Arnot Gallery based in New York, one of many that were owned by the Arnot art dealer family, that was displaying a series of paintings by Mr Cortès.

open image in gallery

After Mr Edelman left to open up his own gallery, it was discovered that while in his role, he had secretly sold over 3,000 artworks worth over $1 million in his own name behind the back of the company.

Eventually, Mr Edelman’s secretive sales caught up with him when the thief was arrested by the FBI in Chicago and was handed a two-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine in 1969.

As for the 3,000 paintings, many were lost in the international art market, although some, like Flower Market Madeline, have been reappearing in auction houses and galleries across the world.

Other Mr Cortès paintings have reappeared in the recent past, such as another flower market scene called Marche Aux Fleurs which was found in a Goodwill in Easton, Maryland, in March 2008.

While another New York City establishment, Rehs Galleries has displayed and owned a number of Mr Cortès’ works as well, Mr Marinello stressed that anyone buying or selling a painting by the artist should check with the Arnot Gallery for proper authentication.

“We have been recovering one or two pictures per year from this 60-year-old theft, and we’re never going to give up until every last one is returned,” he concluded.