By Angela Marshall
For 28 years, Ms. Phol had a $5 million painting on her bedroom wall and never knew it. She had been given what she thought was a dark and dreary picture of Jesus by a principal at the school where she taught art almost three decades ago. Not attracted to the painting but thinking the frame beautiful, Ms. Phol pasted a new picture inside and hung it on her wall. And there it remained until a couple of years ago when she decided to have a new picture installed in the frame by a local art restorer.
When she went to pick it up, the painting was gone and so was the wood cradle that held it in place. Although Ms. Phol did not miss the painting, she was upset about plywood backing in place of the cradle. However, she was reading the book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" and decided not to make a big deal about it.
Then came the knock on her door. The restorer, Frank Vaccaro of Rockville Centre, had tried to sell the painting back to the German museum that owned the painting at the time of its theft, according to the United States Customs Department.
Early Renaissance painter Jacopo de'Barbari created the portrait of Christ in 1503 and it had been missing since World War II. The painting was believed to be stolen from the Schloss Schwartzburg castle in Germany, where the Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar Museum had hidden it. Customs agents believe the painting and 12 others were stolen by a troop from the U.S. 15th Infantry Division that controlled the castle during the war.
Mr. Vaccaro, who allegedly demanded the museum pay him a $100,000 finders fee, was arrested in November 1999 and charged with possession and attempted sale of the painting. The charges were later dropped. "I'm very happy that the painting went back to the museum," Mr. Vaccaro said when reached at his store, Master of Furniture. "That's what I always wanted."
"Traffickers in stolen art won't find a safe haven in America. No matter how long the art has been missing, we will continue to pursue it," said U.S. Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly at a news conference last week.
The investigation finally over, the painting was returned to the Germany museum on Dec. 6. But before its final trip home, the painting was given the star treatment at Sotheby's in New York City. After it was cleaned of the dreary film Ms. Pohl disliked, the painting was put on display in a glass case. "I had to laugh to think I had it in my bedroom all these years," Ms. Pohl said after going to see the painting in all its glory. "It really was lovely. If it was like that when I had it, I would never have covered it."
Ms. Pohl used another famous artist's words to describe her recent experiences. "Andy Warhol said everyone gets fifteen minutes of fame. I've had my day."
