PORTLAND, Maine — The FBI announced it has recovered the last two of six N.C. Wyeth paintings that were stolen from the apartment of prominent developer Joseph Soley.
Investigators by July had recovered four of the paintings that 65-year-old Lawrence Estrella, of Worcester, Massachusetts, had driven to California, where they were sold to a famous Beverly Hills pawn shop.
FBI officials announced Thursday that they had recovered the last two stolen paintings, titled “The Encounter on Freshwater Cliff” and “Go, Dutton, and that right speedily.”
A person the FBI did not identify gave the paintings in October to retired FBI agent Jim Siracusa in the Boston area, investigators said, and directed Siracusa to hand the paintings over to the FBI.
Both were found in good condition in their original frames and inside cardboard boxes, investigators said. The recovered paintings will be kept at the Portland Museum of Art.
The announcement closes the investigation that so far has led to the arrest of three people, including Estrella. The FBI said that Oscar Leroy Roberts, 37, of North Hollywood, California, was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison for using the paintings to secure a loan.
Dean Corniti, 55, of North Hollywood, California, pleaded guilty in March to a charge of possession of stolen property and is set to be sentenced in December.
The FBI in August offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the return of the paintings stolen in what they said was the biggest art heist in the state’s history.
Investigators said Thursday that nobody has requested the reward money in the investigation and it has not made additional arrests, though its investigation continues.
Soley has said his collection of Wyeth paintings had been independently valued at $50 million.
Born in 1882 in Needham, Massachusetts, N.C. Wyeth got his start as an illustrator of books and magazines. He gained acclaim for painting seascapes after settling in Port Clyde, Maine, on the state’s rugged midcoast, where he lived until his death in 1945.
Soley said he acquired the paintings over the course of many decades and partly through a friendship with painter Andrew Wyeth, the youngest son of N.C. Wyeth. He said he met Andrew Wyeth one summer at a seasonal home in Camden.