Two paintings stolen from the University of New Mexico’s Harwood Museum of Art in 1985 have been recovered and returned, nearly four decades after they vanished from the museum’s second floor, according to the FBI’s Albuquerque Field Office.

The works — one by Victor Higgins and another by Joseph Henry Sharp — were taken in March 1985, when the Harwood Museum in Taos, New Mexico, was still operating primarily as a public library, the FBI said. The theft went unsolved for decades.

In the spring of 2024, the museum notified the FBI, prompting the Art Crime Team at the field office to review the case. After consulting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, the FBI opened a formal investigation, the agency said. The paintings were located, recovered and returned to the Harwood Museum on May 12, the FBI said.

“We are grateful for the cooperation of all parties involved,” Margaret Girard, acting assistant special agent in charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office said in a statement. “The recovery of these stolen paintings is a powerful reminder that the FBI continues to commit investigative resources to recover cultural property and return these stolen items to their rightful owners.”

The case predates the 1994 passage of the Theft of Major Artwork statute, which made it a federal crime to steal cultural property from a museum, the FBI said. Despite the legal gap at the time of the theft, the FBI pursued the case under its broader mandate to recover stolen art and cultural heritage.

Investigators credited the cooperation of several people and organizations for the successful recovery. All leads in the case have now been exhausted, the FBI said.

The FBI emphasized the importance of reporting stolen art to its National Stolen Art File Database, which allows the public and law enforcement to identify and track missing works.

The Harwood Museum unveiled the recovered paintings to the public Friday.

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