© POTOMACK COMPANY / AP PHOTO
This image released by Potomack Company shows an apparently original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that was acquired by a woman from Virginia who stopped at a flea market in West Virginia and paid $7 for a box of trinkets that included the painting.
The identity of the Virginia woman who
claimed she paid $7 at a flea market for a napkin-sized painting that turned out to be a Renoir has been revealed. But the case has taken mysterious twists and turns following the release of the owner's identity.
The woman, identified in court documents as Marcia Fuqua, a former physical education teacher who now runs a driving school, came forward as part of her legal battle with the FBI to reclaim ownership of the piece after it was revealed the painting, a river Seine scene titled "Paysage Bords de Seine," was stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1951.
The find by Fuqua, 51, made headlines in September when she turned the painting over to a Virginia auction house where it was expected to command at least $75,000. Instead, a
Washington Post reporter uncovered documents showing the piece was stolen from the museum, the auction was called off and the FBI seized the painting.
Who the painting will ultimately go to is now in the hands of a judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., after the federal government filed an action there last month,
according to the Associated Press.
Along with Fuqua, an insurer, the Fireman's Fund, is also claiming ownership after since it paid a $2,500 claim on the theft back in 1951.
Also in dispute now that Fuqua's identity has been revealed is how much she knew about the painting while it was in her possession.
