Missing $200,000 Photo Found

December 12, 2002

 

Los Angeles: A rare photo reported stolen in 1998 has been located. It was valued at $200,000. The unique positive photogram was created by Russian artist and designer El Lissitzky (1890-1941) in the 1920s. It is an untitled mannequin study that was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1992.
The owner, living in New York, consigned the photo to a New York photography dealer who traveled to the Los Angeles area to sell the photo to a client. He checked into a hotel and discovered the photo missing the following day. He subsequently reported the photo stolen on June 4, 1998.
The photo was recently located in a hotel in Oakland, California where it had been sitting unclaimed in a luggage storage room for over four years.
For further information, contact Detective Don Hrycyk, LAPD Art Theft Detail, at 213-485-2524.
This press release was prepared by Public Information Officer Grace Brady, Media Relations Section.