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Earlier this month, the Silver City, New Mexico, furniture and antiques dealer realized the painting that was among the items he had just purchased from an estate was Willem de Kooning鈥檚 鈥淲oman-Ochre.鈥� It had been stolen more than 31 years ago from the University of 蜜柚直播 Museum of Art.

Van Auker and the other players involved in bringing back the painting, said to be worth as much as $160 million, gathered Monday, Aug. 14, to talk about the piece鈥檚 return.

As the story of its recovery was revealed in an upstairs gallery at the UA Museum of Art, the painting sat in a guarded downstairs room. After the conference, the press was allowed to view it, one person at a time. The abstract expressionist piece practically glowed under the museum light, and de Kooning鈥檚 aggressive strokes and the swaths of blues and reds did not look worse for the wear to the untrained eye.

The painting鈥檚 journey since it was sliced out of its frame almost 32 years ago:

• Sometime after the 1985 theft, it found its way to the Cliff, New Mexico, home of Jerry and Rita Alter, the Silver City Daily Press reported. There it hung behind a bedroom door. Jerry Alter, a symphony musician and teacher in New York City before he retired to New Mexico, died in 2012; Rita, a retired speech pathologist, died in the last year. An FBI investigation into how the painting came to be at the Alters鈥� modest three-bedroom home on 20 acres continues.
• Van Auker noticed the painting behind that door as he was considering what to purchase at the Alter home. He thought it was 鈥渃ool,鈥� he said at Monday鈥檚 news conference. He put the painting on top of the pile he gathered and headed back to his store.
• Van Auker propped 鈥淲oman-Ochre鈥� up at the store, where a customer came in and looked closely at it. He reached out to touch it when Van Auker鈥檚 partner said, 鈥淒on鈥檛 touch the painting; you鈥檒l put your finger through it.鈥� 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 a de Kooning,鈥� the customer said. Another customer came in and said the same thing. And a third.
• Van Auker did some research and came across a story about the theft. 鈥淭here on the computer screen was a picture of the painting,鈥� he said.

He was starting to get nervous about having it at the store.

鈥淎t this point, we put it in the bathroom,鈥� Van Auker said.

• He knew it was a pricey piece of art sitting in his bathroom, but he never considered holding on to it.

鈥淲e returned something that was stolen,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what everyone should do; that鈥檚 the way I was raised.鈥�

He quickly decided to call the UA Museum of Art: 鈥淚 have a painting that was stolen from the university 30-some years ago,鈥� he said in that Aug. 3 call. 鈥淧lease hold,鈥� the receptionist said.

• UA museum staff rushed to Silver City the next day. By this time, the painting was out of his shop and put in the home of a friend for safe-keeping. The friend was having a party when visited by Meg Hagyard, the interim head of the UA museum; curator Olivia Miller; and Nancy Odegaard, head of restoration at the 蜜柚直播 State Museum. They were led to the painting.

Odegaard kneeled in front of it and starting examining it. It took about two hours before she was satisfied that it was authentic. The last step was matching the cut marks in the original frame to those on the canvas鈥� edges. The thieves had used a razor blade to roughly cut the canvas from its frame.

• The de Kooning was kept overnight in a vault at the Silver City police station. By Aug. 7, it had been crated up, driven back to 蜜柚直播 and settled safely in the environmentally controlled, well-protected museum.

The painting needs some restoration, says Odegaard. In addition to the ripped edges that may be able to be reattached, it was stapled to a board inside a frame, and there is a crease mark where it had been rolled. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a slight brittleness鈥� to the work, said Odegaard. But she added, there were 鈥渘o paint flakes.鈥�

The painting will not go back on the wall until further authentication and restoration is done, said Hagyard.

At the time of the theft, a third party had offered a $10,000 reward. UA Police Chief Brian Seastone, who had been an investigator when the piece was stolen, said at the news conference that he does not know if the cash will still be awarded.

The painting was insured, and the UA Museum of Art received a $400,000 check after it was stolen. That money was put in an endowment fund, and the interest from it was used to upgrade security at the museum.

The amount was returned to the insurer last week, said Chris Sigurdson, the UA鈥檚 vice president of communication.