A New York painting stolen 60 years ago turns up in the Lancashire village

A painting stolen from a New York art gallery 60 years ago has been found 2,500 miles away in a Lancashire village.

Art patrons are celebrating after Flower Market Madeline by Edouard Léon Cortès turned up in Mawdesley.

Art Recovery International became aware of the painting when a Lancashire art dealer offered it for sale online.

The painting was originally exhibited in the Herbert Arnot Gallery.

It was one of 3,000 works stolen by former gallery owner Louis Edelman over a twelve-year period in the 1950s and 1960s.

Edelman was eventually arrested by the FBI in Chicago in the 1960s and convicted of transporting stolen works of art across state lines.

He was jailed for two years and fined $10,000, but most of the paintings were never recovered.

FBI agents foiled Edelman’s plan in the 1960s and recovered a number of works

Flower Market Madeline, which depicts a flower market in the style of the French artist’s other street artworks, was purchased by Carnes Fine Art from Manchester-based auction house Capes Dunn in November 2022.

Bradley Carnes, director of Carnes Fine Art, said he paid more than £10,000 for the work and said he was shocked when Art Recovery International contacted him after putting it up for sale on its website.

He said: “I always look for provenance, so gallery labels, certificates, receipts and so on, to make sure the painting is actually real and not a fake, but you don’t think about them being stolen.

“At first I thought it was a scam, but through a quick Google search I discovered that the person who contacted me was the head of Art Recovery International.

“We got along really well from the beginning and we just made sure this painting got back to its rightful owner in New York.”

Mr. Carnes was eventually compensated for the painting.

Christopher Marinello, attorney and founder of Art Recovery International, spent several months finalizing the sale.

He discovered that the painting had been sent to Capes Dunn in 2022 by an estate in Cheshire, who confirmed it had been acquired from the MacConnal-Mason Gallery in London.

Mr Marinello said: “We are very grateful to Bradley Carnes, Capes Dunn and their seller for unconditionally releasing this stolen painting to the Arnot Gallery.

‘Although in this case we have been able to convince many of the parties to compensate the other, ultimately there will be people who are unlucky.

“I cannot stress enough the importance of carrying out due diligence and authentication checks, which would have brought this stolen painting to light decades earlier.”

Mr Marinello urged anyone buying or selling paintings by Edouard-Leon Cortés to check with the Arnot Gallery about proper authentication.

“We have recovered one or two photos every year from this 60-year-old theft and we will never give up until the last photos are returned,” he said.