Strangely, stolen Salvador Dali painting reappears by mail
Recovering stolen masterpieces can sometimes take years of
police sleuthing. But in the case of a recently pilfered Salvador Dali
painting, a resolution has come swiftly, if somewhat mysteriously.
Dali's "Cartel de Don Juan Tenirio" was recently
mailed back to the New York gallery from which it was stolen June 19. The
parcel, which the gallery received on Friday, was mailed from Greece, according
to the New York Post, which was the first to report the bizarre return.
The culprit remains unknown, and the return address on the
parcel is believed to be fake.
A surveillance video captured an unidentified man in the
gallery around the same time the painting was believed to have been taken from
a wall. The gallery is the Venus over Manhattan, located in the Upper East Side
neighborhood of New York. The theft took place during business hours.
The painting has an estimated value of $150,000. The Post
reported that police investigators and the gallery have confirmed the
authenticity of the work.
The Post reported that the gallery received an email from an
unknown sender earlier last week saying that the painting was being sent back.
The sudden reappearance of stolen art is not without
precedent. Last year, a drawing that was attributed to Rembrandt was stolen
from a hotel in Marina del Rey, only to resurface a few days later at a church
in Encino.
Experts later cast doubt on the authenticity of that
Rembrandt drawing.