Over 50 years after being taken by mobsters, a painting that predates the US Constitution was returned to its rightful owner this month, according to a news release from the FBI.
In 2021, an estate sale featured items including English painter John Opie's "The Schoolmistress." The Estimated date of the oil painting on canvas is 1784.
According to court documents, Gerald Festa testified in 1975 that he and two other individuals with connections to organized crime had taken the painting from Dr. Earl Leroy Wood's residence in 1969. When Joseph Covello, Sr., a convicted mobster, sold his house in 1989, it surfaced again.
The FBI claimed that the man who purchased the painting as part of Covello's Florida property needed to learn about its past because nobody recognized the painting's significance then. Using an appraiser they hired, the buyer's family learned the painting's true history when they were closing out his estate in 2020.
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"When I saw it, it certainly appeared to be an 18th Century painting," appraiser Emily Stauffer told CNN affiliate KUTV. "It was a well-done painting."
Finding the records proving they owned the painting took Wood's family over two years. On January 11, the FBI gave the artwork to Dr. Francis Wood, Wood's 96-year-old son.
"In a world where criminal investigations often leave scars, it was a rare joy to be a part of a win-win case: a triumph for history, justice, and the Wood family," said FBI Special Agent Gary France.
