Enormous Paintings Sliced From Their Frames Return Home To Bolivia

The long saga of two giant , colonial - era painting — slip from a Bolivian church service in 2002 and inadvertently purchased in 2003 by New York collectors , who expose they were stolen after loaning them for a 2013 showing — came full circle yesterday when they were bring out at the government palace in La Paz .

The work , Virgin of Candelaria and Escape to Egypt , were among 12 picture trim back from their frames in a Catholic church in Potosi , 255 mile south of the Washington , according to anABCreport . Richard and Roberta Huber , collectors who specify in colonial Romance American art , did n’t realize the paintings were stolen when they bought them 12 years ago in Brazil . ( The other stolen artworks have yet to resurface . )

In 2013 , the reinstate picture were lend as part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art ’s “ Journeys to New Worlds : Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Art from the Roberta and Richard Huber Collection ; ” the museum soon discovered that the paintings were listed in Interpol’sdatabase of steal art . The Hubers were on hand at the ceremonial occasion returning the picture to the guardianship of Bolivian President Evo Morales .

Dji Drone