Removal of discolored varnish from "Woman-Ochre" (1954–1955)

A Getty conservator in the process of removing discolored varnish from the surface of "Woman-Ochre."

"Woman-Ochre" is in the collection of The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson; Gift of Edward J. Gallagher, Jr. It has been reproduced here with permission. Use of this image is granted exclusively for this purpose.

Painted by pioneer abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning in the mid-fifties and donated to the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1958, Woman-Ochre was a beloved painting exhibited widely over the next three decades.

It disappeared from public view on November 29, 1985 – a fateful day when it was brazenly cut from its frame and stolen from the Museum. The painting’s whereabouts were unknown for almost thirty-two years, until August 2017 when it reappeared at an estate sale in the small town of Cliff, New Mexico.