In 1985, Willem de Kooning’s “Woman-Ochre” painting was cut out of its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The thief escaped accountability from the FBI and local police and its whereabouts remained a mystery.

That is until an antique collector stumbled upon it during an estate sale.

They traced the painting back to the home of Jerry and Rita Alter. They’re a New Mexico couple living just outside of Silver City, New Mexico.

The documentary “The Thief Collector” details the discovery of the de Kooning and how the $160 million painting was restored to its rightful owners.

The question remained: If the Alters had stolen one painting, could they have stolen others?

Lou Schachter and two stolen paintings from Taos

Lou Schachter retired and is now following his passion as a writer. Schachter writes about true crime on Medium.

He believes he has connected the dots from the Alters to two more stolen paintings in New Mexico.

“We know that the MO of that robbery in 1985 exactly matches the way in which the de Kooning was stolen in Tuscon,” Schachter said.

He found a Taos News newspaper article clipping showing a 1985 robbery of the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. The paintings missing, Schachter identified in “The Thief Collector” documentary film and traced their sale to an auction house in Scottsdale.

A painting traced back to the Alter’s home by Victor Higgins sold at auction for $93,600. 

Another painting traced back to the Alter’s home by Joseph Henry Sharp sold at auction for $52,650.

Schachter said officials at the Harwood Museum of Art “seem confident these are their two missing paintings.”

4 Investigates found that museum officials had an internal art recovery group meeting Friday. They also created a task force to try and recover their missing artwork.

4 Investigates emailed the Scottsdale Art Auction. We asked them how they determine if auctioned art is stolen. Also, we asked about where the two paintings in question are now. They provided this statement:

“The Scottsdale Art Auction has been in business since 2005 and has sold over 7,000 original works of art. We do our due diligence to prevent the sale of stolen goods which we have not experienced to date. At the time of taking these two works on consignment, we checked the FBI’s National Stolen Art File and neither painting was listed – nor are they listed today. We will cooperate completely with the FBI in this matter; though at this point we have not heard from them.”