By Sarina Trangle
MASPETH — A Norman Rockwell painting that police said was stolen from a Maspeth storage facility last year has been recovered undamaged in Ohio, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Police said a piece titled “Sport” by the famous American artist was stolen Sept. 13 from WelPak Corp. on Grand Avenue, where it had been stored, according to cops.
WelPak caters to museums, art galleries, private collectors and art dealers by offering packing, storage, shipping and installation services for fine art, according to its website.
Jean Gardner, a lawyer for WelPak, told The Wall Street Journal that a private investigator recovered the 1939 work inside the same casing it had been stored in at the Maspeth facility somewhere in Ohio. She said nobody had been charged in the theft.
The front cover of the Saturday Evening Post once featured an image of the painting, which depicts a man donning a yellow rain jacket in a boat with a fishing pole in hand.
Rockwell’s oil on canvas painting, which police say has a gold-colored wooden frame, had been sold in 20134 by a private collection in Birmingham, Ala. for more than $1 million at Sotheby’s, the New York Post reported.
