Dr. Laura:
My partner David and I are two of three gentlemen who found a famous painting that was stolen thirty years ago from the University of Arizona. We own a small shop in New Mexico that resells furniture, antiques, and estate finds. Several months ago, we purchased the contents of an estate in a nearby community, and in the contents, we found a
Willem de Kooning painting "
Woman Ochre." At the time, we had no knowledge of its worth or prestige, but our customers recognized the artist's name and encouraged us to look into the piece.
Ever since I met David, he has talked about you to me, and often would remind me to "
do the right thing." Over time, I started listening to him and you, and we often had deep conversations about the topics that people called you about. I'm telling you this because you had a real influence on what we did in this case. Once David discovered that the painting in our possession was stolen property, we said "
We've gotta give it back. She has to go home!" It was by no means an easy task to try and simply return the painting! It was almost laughable how many phone calls, emails, and texts it took. I guess it's not every day that someone calls up a museum saying they think they have THE painting that was stolen. David jumped through all the red tape, including working with the museum, the FBI, law enforcement and the news media from all around the world. Even the attorneys couldn't get it through their heads that all we wanted was to "
do the right thing." Ever since we've been thrust into the spotlight, it's been easy to answer the question "
What did you get out of it?" Our answer: "
Peace of mind. We simply returned something that had been stolen." We just did the right thing.
I'm honored to be a part of the story of this painting. We're now having fun telling the story, and reassuring people that we asked for no reward because we only did the right thing. So many people have told us that we have reaffirmed their faith in humanity. Your words ring true in the world!
Buck
