Who were Rita and Jerry Alter? $100M de Kooning painting stolen by notorious art thieves returns to UA museum
TUCSON, ARIZONA: An FBI investigation into notorious art thieves Rita and Jerry Alter found that the pair lived in luxury despite earning a modest salary as teachers in New Mexico. The couple, who stole a $100 million painting by De Kooning, owned other valuable works of art in their home. They reportedly traveled extensively around the world. It has long been speculated that it was they who stole De Kooning's 'Woman Ochre' from the University of Arizona Art Museum in 1985. Both Jerry and Rita are now dead. The painting has now finally returned to the Arizona Museum of Art. The restored painting will be on display at the University of Arizona Museum of Art and open to the public beginning Oct 8.
During the theft, a woman began chatting with a security guard while her male accomplice cut out the painting and fled with it. The thieves were not identified until 2017 when a New Mexico museum curator who had purchased the painting for $2,000 from Rita's estate alerted police to the painting's location. A subsequent investigation revealed that the women also owned other artwork, including two paintings that were to be sold for six figures each, according to the FBI, the Arizona Republic reported.
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Who were Rita and Jerry Alter?
According to the FBI, the Alters' nephew said Rita owned more than a million dollars worth of bonds before her death in 2017 at age 81. She was a speech pathologist in Silver City, New Mexico, and her salary was only $16,171. Christy Miller, a special education teacher who shared an office with Rita at GW Stout Elementary School in Silver City, said the couple lived luxuriously in their new home in Southwest. They moved here in 1977, the Daily Mail reported.
Their single-story ranch had a swimming pool and busts of William Shakespeare and Ludwig van Beethoven. You could also see a blue tile-covered pyramid. According to neighbors, they visited Hong Kong, Chile, Tasmania, Nepal, India, Japan, and the Caribbean. In total, they visited about 145 countries, according to the FBI.
Jerry was a professional musician and teacher in New York City schools before retiring to New Mexico. He reportedly wrote under 'About the author' in 'Aesop's Fables Set in Verse,' a book he published in 2011. In 2012, Jerry died at the age of 81. A year before his death, he published a book of short stories titled 'The Cup and the Lip: Exotic Tales,' which included stories that were "an amalgamation of actuality and fantasy," as he wrote in the preface.
After Rita's death, her nephew Ron Roseman, the executor of her estate, donated a pair of expensive paintings and other sculptures to the Silver City Town and Country Garden Club's nonprofit thrift store. The donation included originals by Joseph Henry Sharp and Victor Higgins. The nonprofit sold the artwork for $122,692, which is more than three times what the charity normally raises in a year.
Jerry and Rita kept a day planner with notes about where they went, what they ate, and what medications they had, according to KOB 4. They left Thanksgiving 1985 blank, the day when the painting was stolen. It has also been revealed that the couple, who have two children, was in Tucson a day before the heist. After the theft, authorities released a sketch of the couple and described what they were wearing. However, no arrests were made and the theft went cold.
Jerry and Rita kept a daily planner with notes about where they went, what they ate, and what medications they took KOB 4 reports. They left Thanksgiving 1985, the day the painting was stolen, blank. It was also revealed that the couple, who have two children, were in Tucson the day before the heist. After the theft, authorities released a sketch of the couple and described what they were wearing. However, no arrests were made and the theft remained unsolved.
In 2017, David Van Auker, who co-owns the Manzanita Ridge Furniture and Antiques store in Silver City, accidentally came across the painting kept behind the master bedroom of Jerry and Rita's New Mexico house. He had gone there after hearing about an estate sale. He recalled later how he was walking around the house he found a "great, cool mid-century painting". He bought it from Roseman for $2,000. He was, however, unaware of its history, and so was Roseman. He later turned on his computer and looked up the painting, eventually learning that it was stolen and alerting authorities.
The painting will be displayed at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in May 2023 in a new exhibit named 'Restored: The Return of Woman-Ochre'. Only the Alters knew how they managed to get their hands on the $100 million painting. "They took that to the grave with them, unfortunately," Tim Carpenter, a senior adviser to the FBI Art Crime Team, said.