The Baltimore Sun reports that U.S. District Judge Judge Leonie Brinkema allowed the Baltimore Museum of Art’s motion for summary judgment at today’s hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. That means that the BMA is the owner of the painting, not claimant Martha Fuqua, who argued that she bought the painting at a 2009 flea market in good faith. Barring an appeal (or perhaps even with one), the painting will soon return to Baltimore from where it was stolen in 1951.
No written decision has yet been made, but in simple terms the decision means that the judge was so convinced on the papers that the BMA was right, that she saw no need to make the BMA continue to prepare for a trial beginning January 15, 2014.
More developments are certain to follow. Meanwhile, this may soon be visible in Baltimore for the first time since Harry Truman was President:
