Art safety

FBI recovers a Chagall painting stolen from New York City art collectors 30 years ago

An oil painting by Belarusian artist Marc Chagall has been recovered by the FBI after it was stolen from a New York City apartment 30 years ago.

Agents found the 1911 painting titled 'Othello and Desdemona' at the home of a Maryland man who was the middle man for a thief who stole it in 1988 from the home of Ernest and Rose Heller while they were on vacation in Aspen, Colorado.

Also looted from the East 57th Street apartment were 13 other works of art - including paintings and sculptures - china, jewelry and carpets valued at $600,000 then, or $1.3million today.

According to Washington Field Office Special Agent Marc Hess, the robbery was 'an inside job' committed by a temporary employee who worked in the building.

The FBI said he sold the Chagall painting to the man in Maryland either in the late 1980s or the early 1990s. 

The man kept the painting in a wooden box in his attic for years and tried to sell the painting to a gallery in Washington, DC twice, first in 2010 and then in 2017, but was unsuccessful after he failed to prove ownership.