Two Paintings Stolen in New York in 1978 Found by Chance

Two Eastman Johnson paintings stolen from separate New York galleries in 1978 have surfaced by chance in a collector’s estate in Connecticut 48 years later. The Young Mother, painted around 1872–73, and Mary and Her Lamb, dated 1877, caught the attention of art and antiques dealer Brandon Levine, who had originally gone to the property to inspect bronze sculptures.

A scene of a woman holding a doll and the initials “EJ” on both pictures led him to recognise Johnson’s hand. Rather than make an offer immediately, he decided to investigate their provenance.nnLevine compared his photographs with entries in the online Eastman Johnson catalogue raisonné compiled by art historians Patricia Hills and Abigael MacGibeny. The result was startling: the works were listed as whereabouts unknown and stolen.

The Young Mother had disappeared from Hirschl & Adler Galleries in 1978; Mary and Her Lamb had been taken from the Kenneth Lux Gallery in the same year. What began as a routine estate visit had suddenly reopened two art-crime files that had remained unresolved for decades.nnLevine contacted Sandra Germain, owner of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers in Connecticut.

The catalogue information was checked against the Art Loss Register, and the family that had inherited the paintings was approached. Once the family agreed to give them back, Germain traced the rightful owners. Hirschl & Adler staff still remembered The Young Mother in detail. The Kenneth Lux Gallery had long since closed, so the second search took more work, but Germain eventually reached the dealer’s son, Daniel Lux, and Mary and Her Lamb was returned to the family.nnThe two paintings are estimated to be worth around $200,000 or more in total.

Johnson, known in his lifetime as the “American Rembrandt”, is celebrated for portraits and genre scenes of 19th-century American life. Yet the larger value of this recovery lies in the role of accessible digital catalogues and responsible participants in the market. Levine gave up the chance to buy the works; Germain and the inheriting family placed lawful ownership first.

A case almost half a century old was solved because a sharp eye was followed by a shared decision to do the right thing.