Two priceless paintings, absent for four decades, have finally returned to their rightful home at the University of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Art, per artnews.com. The FBI announced the recovery of Victor Higgins’s “Aspens” (c. 1932) and Joseph Henry Sharp’s “Oklahoma Cheyenne aka Indian Boy in Full Dress” (c. 1915), stolen in March 1985 from the then-library and museum hybrid.
The breakthrough came after investigative reporter Lou Schachter linked the Harwood thefts to the infamous 2017 recovery of Willem de Kooning’s “Woman-Ocher.” A 2022 documentary on the de Kooning thieves, Rita and Jerry Alter, even showed the Higgins and Sharp pieces in their living room.
This crucial tip spurred Harwood Museum Executive Director Juniper Leherissey to form an Art Recovery Task Force. Their diligent work, culminating in a presentation to the FBI in March 2024, led to the bureau taking on the case. Further investigation revealed the paintings were illicitly sold at a Scottsdale auction house in 2018 under altered titles.
On May 12, the artworks were located and returned, celebrated publicly on June 6. Leherissey, who frequented the Harwood as a child, expressed profound relief. “It’s a joy—and a profound relief—to welcome these works… back to the Harwood,” she stated. The museum is now showcasing “The Return of Taos Treasures,” featuring the recovered works alongside other pieces by the Taos Society of Artists members.
•Featured image: The Victor Higgins painting Aspens (c. 1932).
Courtesy UNM Harwood Museum of Art
