In the context of Woman-Ochre, explore the Theft of the History.
On November 29, 1985, the day after Thanksgiving, an older woman and younger man, wearing heavy winter coats against the 55 °F (13 °C) late November chill, were waiting outside the museum shortly before its 9 a.m. opening time. When security guards let a staff member in, the couple followed. The guards decided to let them in anyway.The couple went upstairs. Midway up the stairs, the woman began asking the guard on duty about some of the artwork in the museum, while the man continued upstairs. Shortly afterwards, he returned and the two left.This very short visit to the museum seemed unusual to the guard, and he went upstairs to see if anything was amiss. He found that Woman-Ochre had been cut from its frame. It appeared that the man had hidden the painting under his coat before leaving. A witness later recalled seeing the two drive off in a rust-colored two-door sports car.No fingerprints were found at the scene. At the time the museum had no security cameras, so investigators had to rely on eyewitness accounts which described the man as in his late 20s, with dark brown hair, glasses and a mustache, wearing sunglasses and a dark blue water-repellent coat with a hood; the woman was said to be older, with a scarf and granny glasses, reddish-blonde hair, wearing a red water-repellent coat and tan bell-bottoms. Sketches were made and distributed to the public. The university's police department turned the case over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but no leads materialized.The museum's insurance company paid $400,000, the painting's estimated market value at the time, on the claim. It used the money to buy security cameras; the museum also revised its schedule to stay closed on the day after Thanksgiving in the future. Like many other art museums that have suffered thefts of works on display, it did not replace Woman-Ochre, instead placing a blank ochre-colored canvas on the wall behind the frame, where the cut fibers were still visible, to call attention to the loss. By 2015, when another 1955 de Kooning, Interchange, was sold for $300 million, making it the most expensive painting ever at that time, the museum estimated the value of the still-missing work at $160 million.
claim Federal Bureau of Investigation art museum Sketches the most expensive painting ever sports car Thanksgiving bell-bottoms ochre Interchange rust Ochre security camera left