Arizona museum exhibit marks end to de Kooning painting saga

By TERRY TANG
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — After a Willem de Kooning painting worth millions was brazenly stolen in 1985 from an Arizona museum, the staff clung to the hope that it would turn up one day. But nobody could have predicted “Woman-Ochre” would find its way back through the kindness of strangers in a neighboring state. The 1955 oil painting by the Dutch American abstract expressionist is finally back home. It will be the centerpiece of an entire exhibition opening Oct. 8. The whole ordeal of the theft and its return via New Mexico will be chronicled in the show. The painting will be in the same spot it was stolen from — but under a case.