N.J. man arrested in theft of Goya painting owned by Toledo museum

10/24/2007

A 49-year-old New Jersey man was arrested Tuesday for the Nov. 8 theft of a 1778 painting by Goya owned by the Toledo Museum of Art.

Steven Lee Olson was arrested by the FBI at his Bergen County home in Carlstadt, N.J.

Children with a Cart by Spanish master Francisco de Goya y Lucientes

was en route from Toledo to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City when its transporters stopped for the night at a Pennsylvania motel, leaving the painting in the truck. They discovered it missing the next morning.

Tips led the FBI to the unharmed oil painting in New Jersey a week later.

It is satisfying to learn that an arrest has been made, and we commend the FBI and the U.S. Attorney s office for their diligent investigation, said Don Bacigalupi, director of the Toledo museum.

The museum has since tightened its procedures when shipping works of art.

The painting is on view in the museum s Gallery 28A.

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