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# Stolen Elaine de Kooning Work Found in Colorado Hotel Room
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/stolen-elaine-de-kooning-work-found-in-colorado-hotel-room/
- Published: 2023-01-19T22:38:49.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:50:08.000Z
- Description: Boulder authorities also uncovered stolen guns, drugs, and work by artist Jane Freilicher.
- Author: Elaine Velie
- Tags: News, Art Crime, Boulder, Colorado, Elaine de Kooning, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:29 (2023, 2024, part 1)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2023/01/fbiraid.jpg)

Clockwise from top left: Elaine de Kooning, "Untitled (Madrid Series #3)"; Eanger Irving Couse, "Taos Pueblo at Night"; Jane Freilicher, "Burnett’s Barn"; and Joseph Henry Sharp, "View of the Taos Pueblo" (images courtesy City of Boulder)

On December 14, an art transport company rolled into a Boulder hotel for the night. The next morning, the movers found the truck's padlock smashed and five paintings — worth a total of $400,000 — stolen.

A little over three weeks later, Colorado police found the works undamaged in a different hotel room in the city of Lakewood, about a 40 minute drive away. The authorities also uncovered stolen guns and electronics, 2,000 fentanyl pills, and 23 grams of methamphetamine.

Two of the paintings were [en route](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrabregman/2023/01/10/boulder-police-recover-five-paintings-stolen-in-art-heist/?sh=36a73e40163b&ref=hyperallergic.com) to a buyer in a Denver suburb: Jane Freilicher's "Burnett’s Barn" and Elaine de Kooning's "Untitled (Madrid Series #3)," which portrays a matador. After moving to New Mexico in 1957 and inspired by a trip to Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, de Kooning [created a series](https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/object/2012.300?ref=hyperallergic.com) of drawings and paintings depicting bullfighting.

The remaining three paintings were [headed to New Mexico](https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/boulder-artwork-paintings-stolen/73-d8a2311f-465b-4934-9208-e11091657c90?ref=hyperallergic.com) after they were sold at a [Bonhams auction](https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28088/the-collection-of-g-andrew-bjurman/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in November. Joseph Henry Sharp's "View of the Taos Pueblo," Eanger Irving Couse's "Taos Pueblo at Night," and Ernest Martin Hennings's "Laguna Pueblo" fetched sale prices of $38,175, $70,935, and $20,400, respectively. Sharp, Couse, and Hennings were all founding members of the [Taos Society of Artists](https://www.taosartmuseum.org/taos-society-of-artists.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), a short-lived collective that lasted from 1915 to 1926 whose members offered romanticized scenes of Western life, featuring subjects such as cowboys, ranches, and indigenous peoples.

The police arrested 31-year old Brandon Camacho-Levine in association with the robbery. He was booked on [15 charges](https://bouldercolorado.gov/news/great-policework-leads-arrest-recovery-stolen-art?ref=hyperallergic.com), including theft, drug distribution and manufacturing, distributing drugs while in possession of a firearm, and weapon possession by a convicted felon. In late July, Camacho-Levine was arrested for stealing vehicles from a parking garage, but he was able to escape. While in custody, he experienced a medical emergency and was taken to a hospital, where he [reportedly](https://kdvr.com/news/local/suspect-escapes-police-custody-at-rose-medical-center/?ref=hyperallergic.com) fought with police and the hospital's staff and fled.