It turns out that a stolen Norman Rockwell painting which Steven Spielberg unwittingly bought from a dealer in 1989, but handed over to the FBI in 2007, was in fact not actually stolen in the first place. Or rather it was, the Los Angeles Times reports, but by the time the film director got hold of it, its status had been resolved.
Russian Schoolroom (1967) was stolen from a Missouri gallery in 1973. It was owned at the time by Jack Solomon, who sued Spielberg in 2007. At which point the original dealer, Judy Goffman Cutler, swapped Spielberg’s Rockwell for another in her inventory in order to save the latter the hassle and publicity of the case. The new ruling by a Los Angeles judge means that the painting will now be returned to her. Via:[Art Review]
