Roy Lichtenstein painting recovered in New York after 42 years
Baku, August 2 (AZERTAC). A painting by modern art pioneer Roy Lichtenstein that`s been missing for 42 years has suddenly surfaced in New York — and a judge ruled Tuesday it can`t be moved from an Upper East Side warehouse. Lichtenstein`s black-and-white “Electric Cord” disappeared in 1970 after being sent out for restoration from the Leo Castelli Gallery on East 77th Street. The image of a tightly wound electric cord, painted by Lichtenstein in 1961 and purchased by Castelli for $750, is now worth an estimated $4 million, according to lawyers for Castelli`s widow, Barbara Bertozzi Castelli. Supreme Court Justice Peter Sherwood agreed to temporarily freeze any move to sell "Electric Cord" and to bar access to the artwork until he hears arguments Monday on who owns it. "We`re concerned that this painting is just going to disappear," Castelli`s lawyer, Benjamin Semel, said. “Electric Cord,” which was once exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, has officially been listed as “lost” on the records of Castelli Gallery, which Castelli`s widow inherited in 1999 when her husband died. Leo Castelli gave international prominence to a post-war generation of American artists including Lichtenstein, who had his first one-man show in Castelli`s gallery in 1962. Barbara Castelli, an Italian art historian, only realized the painting should have been part of her inheritance in late 2006, when the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation sent out a holiday card featuring a picture of “Electric Cord.” The card urged the public to report any information about its whereabouts. She contacted the foundation and officially put the painting on an international registry of stolen artwork, according to court records. On July 24, the Lichtenstein Foundation notified her that James Goodman, who owns a gallery on East 57th St., had called to ask if the foundation could authenticate a Lichtenstein in the Hayes Storage Warehouse on East 61 Street. Officials with the foundation sent a rep to the warehouse to look at painting, which had been shipped there from the Quinta Galeria in Bogota, Columbia, for an impending sale, according to court records. Sherwood has ordered the warehouse to refrain from relocating, selling or disposing of the painting, or allowing anyone access to it. “There are always at least three sides to any story,” Sherwood said.
Roy Lichtenstein (October 27, 1923 - September 29, 1997) was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s, his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist, and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the basic premise of pop art better than any other through parody. Favoring the old-fashioned comic strip as subject matter, Lichtenstein produced hard-edged, precise compositions that documented while it parodied often in a tongue-in-cheek humorous manner. His work was heavily influenced by both popular advertising and the comic book style. He described Pop Art as, "not `American` painting but actually industrial painting"
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