Hunt for 18th-century masterpiece stolen by mobsters solved half a century later
The FBI hunt for an 18th-century British masterpiece stolen by American mobsters has been solved more than a half-century later.
The 40-inch-by-50-inch John Opie painting “The Schoolmistress” is the sister painting of a similar work housed in the Tate Britain art gallery in London. Following its discovery, it has now been returned to the family that bought it during the Great Depression for £6,000 which is worth £108,000 today.
Authorities believe the piece - now estimated to be worth around £1 million - was stolen with the help of a former New Jersey lawmaker in 1969, then passed among organised crime members for years before it ended up in southern Utah.
When a man purchased a house in Florida in 1989 from mafia mobster Joseph Covello Sr, the FBI said the painting was included in the sale. When the buyer died in 2020, a Utah accounting firm that was seeking to liquidate his property sought an appraisal for the painting, and it was discovered to likely be the stolen piece, the FBI said.
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Special Agent Gary France watches as Dr. Francis Wood signs an FBI property release form for the recovered Opie painting.The painting, which dates to about 1784, was taken into custody by the agency pending a resolution of who owned it. During the two-year federal investigation, FBI agents poured through decades-old documents, including one to the doctor from Spink & Son, Ltd. in London dated September 23, 1930, confirming the sale and noting: “As far as any picture can be said to be perfect after having been painted for 140 years this one certainly is.”
The FBI said it has now been returned to Dr Francis Wood, 96, of New Jersey, the son of the painting’s original owner, Dr Earl Wood, who bought it during the 1930s. “This piece of art, what a history it’s had,” said FBI Special Agent Gary France, who worked on the case. It traveled all through the UK when it was first painted and owned by quite a few families in the UK.
“And then it travels overseas to the United States and is sold during the Great Depression and then stolen by the mob and recovered by the FBI decades later. It’s quite amazing.”
Opie, who came from Cornwall, was one of the most important British historical and portrait painters of his time, said Lucinda Lax, curator of paintings at the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. The artist often portrayed British royals and other members of the elite, but he also depicted scenes from ordinary life, such as in “The Schoolmistress,” which shows an older teacher sitting at a table with a book surrounded by young students.
A copy of documents related to the Opie painting stolen from Dr. Earl Wood in 1969, all those connected to the theft are believed to be dead“It’s such a compelling painting,” Lax said. “It’s a subject drawn from everyday life, and he paints it in a very direct, straightforward way. He’s not artificially elevating it.”
According to the FBI, the painting was taken from Earl Wood’s house by three men working at the direction of former New Jersey state Senator Anthony Imperiale, who died in 1999. No charges have been filed by the FBI since the painting’s recovery because all of those believed to have been involved are dead.
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