South Carolina professor helps crack million-dollar stolen art mystery

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A sharp-eyed art professor recently helped solve a mystery that began 13 years ago, when a legendary South Carolina equestrian’s multimillion-dollar art collection vanished from the sprawling estate she left for the public to enjoy.

Seventeen of Belle Baruch’s beloved artworks, including pieces by John James Audubon and British impressionist Sir Alfred Munnings, disappeared in 2003 in an unsolved caper that was once featured on the PBS program “Antiques Roadshow.” A curator who reported them missing on the day he was fired was later charged with possessing some items stolen from Hobcaw Barony Estate, in Georgetown County, but the heart of the late horse-country aristocrat’s collection remained at large.

“These pieces help tell the story of Hobcaw Barony; their theft left a hole in our history," said George Chastain, executive director of the Belle W. Baruch Foundation, which maintains the estate.

Late last month, 11 of the missing artworks, including Munnings’ paintings and seven of Audubon’s elephant folio prints from “Birds of America,” turned up at an auction house as part of an estate sale. Ivy Auctions owners John and Patty Ivy recognized Munning’s name, and asked Converse College Prof. Frazer Pajak for his opinion.

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