Paintings with ties to an infamous New Mexico couple have been returned to the museum they were stolen from 40 years ago.
Last Friday, officials at the University of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Art unveiled Victor Higgins’ oil painting Aspens (circa 1932) and Joseph Henry Sharp’s oil-on-canvas piece Oklahoma Cheyenne (circa 1915), also known as Indian Boy in Full Dress. The men were members of the Taos Society of Artists, a group of visual artists based in Taos, New Mexico, between 1915 and 1927.
The paintings had been missing from the museum’s walls since March 1985, when they were snatched in broad daylight. It took four decades and lots of sleuthing by an amateur historical crime researcher to get them back to their rightful owner. They’re now on display as part of the museum’s “The Return of Taos Treasures” exhibition…