Baltimore police uncover 1951 Renoir theft report

This undated image provided by the Potomack Company shows an apparently original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that was acquired by a woman from Virginia who stopped at a flea market in West Virginia and paid $7 for a box of trinkets that included the painting. An auction house has put on hold the sale of a painting believed to be by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that a woman bought at a West Virginia flea market because a reporter found evidence someone stole the painting from the Baltimore Museum of Art. A Washington Post reporter discovered documents in the museum?s library showing the painting was there from 1937 until 1949. Museum officials then found paperwork showing the painting, ?Paysage Bords de Seine,? was stolen in 1951. (AP Photo/Potomack Company)

This undated image provided by the Potomack Company shows an apparently original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that was acquired by a woman from Virginia who stopped at a flea market in West Virginia and paid $7 for a box of trinkets that included the painting. An auction house has put on hold the sale of a painting believed to be by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that a woman bought at a West Virginia flea market because a reporter found evidence someone stole the painting from the Baltimore Museum of Art. A Washington Post reporter discovered documents in the museum?s library showing the painting was there from 1937 until 1949. Museum officials then found paperwork showing the painting, ?Paysage Bords de Seine,? was stolen in 1951. (AP Photo/Potomack Company)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Police have located a 1951 theft report from the Baltimore Museum of Art of a Renoir painting matching the description of one that turned up recently at a West Virginia flea market.

The report from Nov. 17, 1951, was uncovered Friday. It says there was no evidence of forced entry at the museum. The painting was valued then at $2,500.

A Virginia woman bought the painting for $7 at the flea market in 2010. It was expected to fetch $75,000 at a now-postponed auction.

Museum officials were combing through paper records to learn more about the theft. So far, they have found a record documenting the painting was on loan from art patron Saidie A. May.

Before the police report, it was the only record of the painting being stolen.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-09-28-Renoir%20Painting-Flea%20Market/id-61d6d6a0a7e0414cbc3ca71c24d984a7

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