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Wellesley College Loses Million-Dollar Painting

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 28, 2008

WELLESLEY, Mass. - Wellesley College has lost a 1921 painting by French cubist Fernand Leger that was likely worth millions of dollars, officials said.

"Woman and Child" had been in the collection of the college's Davis Museum and Cultural Center since 1954. It vanished last year after it was one of 32 works borrowed for an exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

"We've all wondered about it," Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, associate professor of art at Wellesley, told the newspaper.

"It's a tremendous loss for the college, but, beyond that, we just don't have a lot of information."

Police were told, and the museum's insurer, Travelers Insurance, has paid a claim. Last year, Leger's paintings sold for an average of $2.8 million, and the newspaper quoted an unidentified Travelers official as saying the payout was "in that area."

Travelers is offering a $100,000 reward for the painting, the Globe said.

The painting was lent to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and returned in April 2007. But the painting remained in a crate for months while renovations were being done at the Wellesley museum. The Leger had been packed in a crate with two other paintings, which have been accounted for.

The museum didn't realize the 21-inch-by-25-inch painting was gone until November. It was unclear whether the painting was stolen or might have been mistakenly thrown out when packing crates were discarded.

A Wellesley museum official "asked me, 'Do you have our Leger, by chance?'" Oklahoma City Museum of Art registrar Matthew C. Leininger told the newspaper.

"I said, 'No, why are you asking?' That's when she said they couldn't find it. I said, 'Oh, boy.'"

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