Goya Recovered - "Typical New Jersey Cargo Theft

Ooh, the Goya stolen two weeks ago was found safe and sound in New Jersey. The painting titled "Children with a Cart" was being transported from Ohio's Toledo Museum of Art to New York's Guggenheim Museum for the Spanish Painting: From El Greco to Picasso show, but the 1778 was plucked off while the truck drivers were staying the night at a Howard Johnson near Bartonsville, Pennsylvania. A tip from a lawyer led the FBI and other investigators to the painting in central New Jersey, and now they believe it was not an inside job.

From the NY Times:

“This time of year, close to Christmas, they probably thought they’d found a truck filled with PlayStations and broke in and started looking for the biggest-looking box,” said Steve Siegel, an F.B.I. agent who serves as the spokesman for the bureau’s Newark office. “Basically, it’s a target-of-opportunity typical New Jersey cargo theft. There are literally predators — for lack of a better word — who when they see a tractor-trailer or a cargo vehicle parked for any length of time start snooping around.”

It's totally a Sopranos-type move! The painting is heading back to Toledo (the Guggenheim points out there are still 21 Goyas in its show). And you have to wonder if the Toledo Museum of Art will increase the amount the painting is insured for - it's insured for $1 million, but Wildenstein & Co. vice-president Joseph Baillio tells the Sun, "I think it was dramatically underinsured."