Two years after trail went cold, FBI renews search for Wall art teacher's stolen paintings

In early 2022, longtime Wall High School art teacher Jill Alexander shipped four of her oil paintings to an exhibit in Denver with a bit of trepidation. She’d created the works — scenes from Cuba inspired by travel there — in the presence of her ailing mother; they lived together in Wall and Jill was her caregiver.

“It was uplifting for her when there wasn’t a whole lot to be uplifted about,” Jill Alexander said.

Carol Alexander died of bone-marrow cancer in 2020. Now Jill was loaning the paintings to an art show run by an old classmate, who had put out a call for contributors, and she “had a funny feeling” about parting with them.

“My husband, when I was packing them up, said, ‘Are you sure you really want to do this?’” Jill recalled.

She never saw them again.

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Eight works from the exhibit, including her paintings, were stolen from the gallery — a pop-up exhibit in the foyer of a Denver office building. Security footage showed a man dressed in black stuffing them into a duffel bag.

Two years later, despite a promising lead, the case remains unsolved. It faded into a bureaucratic haze before a passing conversation got the attention of U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, whose interest has revived the investigation.

The case goes cold

The Denver exhibit, dubbed “The Waiting Room Gallery,” was the brainchild of Dan Drossman — a classmate of Alexander’s from their days in the New York School of Visual Arts’ masters program. Alexander, a Wall native who at the time was working on an illustrated children’s book that has since been published, never made it out there. Instead, she heard second-hand from a friend in Denver that the exhibit had been burglarized.

“I thought, ‘There’s no way Dan Drossman would not have called me,’” she said.

But he didn’t. Alexander had to call him for confirmation. Eventually, she learned that the gallery was not insured. Three of her paintings were listed at a sale price of $4,000, and the fourth was listed at $6,000. Drossman did set up a GoFundMe campaign that netted $3,000 for Alexander, although that wasn’t her primary concern.

“I just want these paintings back,” she said.

Denver police assigned a detective to the case, and Alexander said Drossman told her that a QR code in the exhibit had been scanned by the thief’s phone — so authorities had an IP address.

Then, nothing.

“The detective in charge never returned any of my messages,” Alexander said.

She later learned the detective retired.

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Finally, a breakthrough

Each year, Smith’s office runs a Congressional Art Competition for students throughout his district (this year’s concludes May 3 with a reception and awards ceremony at Community Medical Center in Toms River). Alexander’s students have been regular contributors. Last year Smith’s district director, Jeff Sagnip, asked art teachers to submit a work for display.

Alexander told him she would make some prints.

“Why prints?” Sagnip asked.

“That’s when I told him the story,” Alexander said. “I don’t feel comfortable; I haven’t put any work in any galleries since this happened.”

Word reached Smith, he made some calls, and before long Alexander’s phone started ringing

“The FBI reached out to me,” she said. “And Denver police put a new detective on it, and he contacted me.”

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Just last week, the FBI added the four missing paintings to its online National Stolen Art File. And Denver police posted a $2,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to the recovery of any of the works that disappeared from the exhibit.

Alexander said investigators “are trying to obtain a warrant information for the two different IP addresses that pinged after the theft, so they can get to the bottom of who they belong to.”

Most of all, she has the peace of mind of finally being heard.

“For months I was so distraught after this happened. I was calling and emailing and nobody ever got back to me,” she said. “Now this after one simple conversation, so I am beyond grateful.”

If nothing else, there are valuable real-world lessons for Alexander to impart on her students.

“I tell them, ‘First, if you are looking to show your artwork somewhere, you have to make sure there is insurance at the space,” she said. “And No. 2, you should probably visit it. I don’t know I would send work somewhere (unseen) again. See the space and get a feel for it.

“If it doesn’t feel right, maybe it isn’t right.”

Jill Alexander’s missing paintings

Here are the listings of the four paintings in the FBI’s National Stolen Art File:

Portrait of a man in a straw hat (https://artcrimes.fbi.gov/nsaf/el-granjero-de-tabaco)

Street scene with three musicians (https://artcrimes.fbi.gov/nsaf/los-tres-musicos)

Street scene of men playing dominoes (https://artcrimes.fbi.gov/nsaf/domino-al-atardecer)

Havana street scene of a red car (https://artcrimes.fbi.gov/nsaf/havana-street)

Anyone with information on the paintings should call the Denver Police Department's Crime Stoppers tip line at 720-913-7867.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Congressman Chris Smith spurs FBI interest in Wall stolen paintings