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Missing Painting Turns Up, but Case Isn’t Closed

Its discovery was nearly as strange as its disappearance.

For more than a month, the whereabouts of “Portrait of a Girl,” a painting by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot of a young girl with a lace collar, a teal skirt and mournful eyes, has been shrouded in intrigue....

Then, on Sunday, the artwork suddenly materialized — under the arm of a Fifth Avenue doorman, who took it to a police station house on the Upper East Side.

The doorman, Franklin Puentes, told the authorities that he had had the 19th-century portrait, which officials say was appraised recently at between $500,000 and $700,000, since the hours after it disappeared — tucked inside his locker, in the basement of the building where he works.

Mr. Puentes told the police that he had found the painting in the bushes outside that building, 995 Fifth Avenue, after arriving for his shift on July 29, the officials said....
Read entire article at NYT