A painting by the late pop artist Roy Lichtenstein that disappeared 42 years has turned up in a warehouse in New York City.
Lichtenstein's black and white "Electric Cord" was reported as stolen after it was sent out to be cleaned by owner Leo Castelli in 1970 and never returned.
The painting shows a tightly wound electrical cord. Court papers say it re-emerged last week when the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation notified Castelli's widow, Barbara Castelli, someone was trying to sell it.
Castelli's court filings say the painting recently was on display at a museum in Colombia.
"We're concerned that this painting is just going to disappear," Mrs Castelli's lawyer, Benjamin Semel, said.
A judge on Tuesday signed an order barring the Manhattan warehouse from selling or moving the painting until a hearing next week.
Mrs Castelli, an Italian art historian, only realised the painting should have been part of her inheritance in 2006, when the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation sent out a card featuring a picture of the painting, urging the public to come forward with any information.
On July 24, the foundation told her that a New York gallery had called to authenticate it. It had been shipped from the Quinta Galeria in Bogota, Colombia, according to the court records.
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