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Man arrested in theft of Toledo museum’s 1778 Goya painting

Filed by Associated Press October 25th, 2007 in Local and State.
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TRENTON, N.J. — FBI agents arrested a New Jersey man for the theft of a Toledo Museum of Art masterpiece from a transport truck last year, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Steven Lee Olson, 49, was arrested without incident at his home in Carlstadt on Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey.

He has been charged with stealing “Children with a Cart,” a 1778 painting by famed Spanish artist Francisco de Goya. In an initial appearance in federal court in Newark on Wednesday, Olson through his lawyer decided not to immediately contest his detainment.

He remained in federal custody, with a bail hearing scheduled for Oct. 31.

The federal public defender representing Olson didn’t immediately return an Associated Press phone message. A message left at a number listed for Olson also wasn’t immediately returned.

The painting, insured at a value of about $1 million, was being shipped to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan from the Toledo Museum of Art last November.

It was stolen as the transport drivers spent the night at a motel in Stroudsburg, Pa., leaving the masterpiece unattended. They discovered it missing the next morning.

Within days, Olson through an attorney contacted federal authorities to say he found the painting in his basement, said Michael Drewniak, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

After a lengthy investigation, authorities determined that Olson, a self-employed truck driver, had lifted the piece himself, Drewniak said. “It was a crime of opportunity that didn’t pay,” said FBI agent Sandra Carroll in Newark. 



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