A painting by Pablo Picasso vanished from a loading dock at Boston’s Logan International Airport in 1969, launching an FBI investigation, only for the painting to mysteriously be delivered to the Museum of Fine Arts.
Turns out, a Maine native working at the airport took home a crate holding the painting and, after realizing the massive amount of trouble he’d found himself in, schemed with his father and brother to return it before the authorities could track him down, according to a story published Thursday by the New York Times.
Bill Rummel and his brother Whit Rummel grew up in Waterville, the son of a local ice cream shop owner Whitcomb Rummel Sr. The boys were known for getting into trouble and over the years the elder Rummel perfected the art of getting them out of trouble.
But nothing could prepare him for his biggest challenge yet, which involved disguises and an anonymous letter signed “Robbin Hood,” according to the New York Times.
It all began one evening in 1969, when the painting, “Portrait of a Woman and a Musketeer,” arrived at the Boston airport on its way to Milwaukee during a snowstorm. Bill Rummel, who worked for a cargo airline company, recalls crates were strewn about the tarmac. He claimed his supervisor told him to take one home. He loaded a a box into the back of his Chevy Impala but did not realize what was inside until he got home.
His wife, Sam Rummel, recalled her husband calling her and saying “You’ll never guess what I’ve got!”
She thought he was drunk. Not quite an art aficionado, the couple hid the painting in the back of a closet until a few weeks later when they caught wind that the F.B.I. was investigating the case.
That’s when Bill Rummel sought the advice of his father. The senior Rummel quickly devised a plan. Bill Rummel’s brother, who was left handed, used his right hand to write a note and disguise his handwriting. Then, Bill and Whitcomb Rummel loaded the painting into the Chevy once again and drove back to Boston. Whitcomb Rummel, wearing a trench coat, a brimmed hat and gloves, placed the painting in the back of a taxi with a note, instructing the driver to bring it to the Museum of Fine Arts.
There, the museum’s director recovered it, along with the note, which read “Please accept this to replace in part some of the paintings removed from museums thruout the country.”
Nowadays, the painting is suspected of being in the possession of an heir of the Kohl’s department store family. According to the New York Times, today the painting is likely worth millions of dollars.
But the story behind the Maine family that unwittingly stole and returned the artwork? Priceless.
