WASHINGTON D.C. (WTVR) — The FBI is now investigating the Renoir painting found by a Northern Virginia woman at a flea market in West Virginia. According to the Washington Post, the painting may have been stolen decades ago.
In 1937, a collector that once owned the painting, “Paysage Bords de Seine” or “On the Shore of the Seine,” loaned it to the Baltimore Museum of Art. When the painting was found, the museum said it had never entered the facility.
However, the Washington Post discovered that an old loan registration document says that it was stolen in 1951 not long after the owner passed away.
An insurance claim was paid out and the museum says it wants the Renoir back.
The woman that bought the painting in West Virginia says she has agreed to hold of on the auction until the FBI finishes its investigation.
