A British painting stolen by mobsters is returned to the owner's son - 54 years later

Special Agent Gary France, second right,, Dr. Francis Wood and Wood’s children stand next to the John Opie painting that was stolen from Wood’s parents' home in 1969 in Newark, N.J.,on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (FBI via AP)

An 18th century British painting stolen by mobsters in 1969 has been returned more than a half-century later to the family that bought the painting for US$7,500 during the Great Depression, the FBI's Salt Lake City field office announced Friday.

The 40-inch-by-50-inch (102-cm-by-127-cm) John Opie painting -- titled "The Schoolmistress" -- is the sister painting of a similar work housed in the Tate Britain art gallery in London.

Authorities believe the Opie piece was stolen with the help of a former New Jersey lawmaker then passed among organized crime members for years before it ended up in the southern Utah city of St. George. A Utah man had purchased a house in Florida in 1989 from Joseph Covello Sr. -- a convicted mobster linked to the Gambino family -- and the painting was included in the sale, the FBI said.

When the buyer died in 2020, a Utah accounting firm that was seeking to liquidate his property sought an appraisal for the painting and it was discovered to likely be the stolen piece, the FBI said.

The painting was taken into custody by the agency pending resolution of who owned it and returned on Jan. 11 to Dr. Francis Wood, 96, of Newark, the son of the painting's original owner, Dr. Earl Wood, who bought it during the 1930s, the FBI said.

Opie was a British historical and portrait painter who portrayed many people, including British royals. His paintings have sold at auction houses including Sotheby's and Christies, including one that sold in 2007 for almost US$1 million.

"This piece of art, what a history it's had," said FBI Special Agent Gary France, who worked on the case. "It traveled all through the U.K. when it was first painted, and owned by quite a few families in the U.K. And then it travels overseas to the United States and is sold during the Great Depression and then stolen by the mob and recovered by the FBI decades later. It's quite amazing."

According to the FBI, "The Schoolmistress" was taken from Earl Wood's house by three men working at the direction of former New Jersey state Sen. Anthony Imperiale, who died in 1999. Imperiale, a political firebrand who also served as a Newark city councilman, was in the national spotlight in the 1960s as a spokesman for cracking down on crime. He was also divisive, organizing citizen patrols to keep Black protesters out of Italian neighborhoods during riots in Newark in the summer of 1967.

Authorities say the thieves broke into the house in July 1969 in a bid to steal a coin collection, but were foiled by a burglar alarm. Local police and Imperiale responded to the attempted burglary, and the home's caretaker told the lawmaker that the Opie painting in the home was "priceless," the FBI said.

The men returned to the house later that month and stole the painting, the FBI said.

One of the thieves, Gerald Festa, later confessed to the burglary, in the 1975 trial of an accomplice, and said the trio been acting under Imperiale. Festa said the thieves had visited Imperiale prior to the theft and were told by the lawmaker where to find the painting in Wood's home, the FBI said. Festa also testified that Imperiale had the painting.

But the claims against the state lawmaker were not sufficiently corroborated and he was never charged, France said.

No charges have been filed by the FBI since the painting's recovery because all of those believed to have been involved are dead, France said. The three men who stole the painting were all convicted of other mob-related crimes before their deaths, he said.