Italian Retiree Can Keep Stolen Gauguin Masterpiece, Court Rules - East Idaho News
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Italian Retiree Can Keep Stolen Gauguin Masterpiece, Court Rules

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Getty 121214 OilPainting?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1418411515012Hemera/Thinkstock(ROME) — It’s finders keepers for an Italian retiree who unwittingly bought a stolen Gauguin masterpiece now worth $40 million.

An Italian court has ruled that the man who spent a lifetime working night shifts in a FIAT car factory gets to keep the painting he bought for a few dollars at an auction in 1975.

The Gauguin artwork, entitled Fruits on a table or still life with a small dog, was stolen in 1970 from Mathilda Marks, heiress to the Marks and Spencer department store empire, and her American husband in Chester Terrace. Both are now dead and have no children.

Theives left the paintings in a panic on an Italian train, where railway inspectors found them and eventually put them up for auction with other lost items.


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