The Boston Globe reports on the victory in court by an woman who was compensated for the theft of her painting but retains the option to own it now that the work has been recovered. The Angelica Kaufmann portrait has been valued at between $400 and $800,000:

Helen S. Thompson’s Concord home was burglarized in 1975 and the thieves made off with a 1765 painting of Thompson’s ancestors, John Apthorp and his two daughters, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled. The painting had been appraised by a Boston art dealer at $25,000. The former Northern Assurance Co. paid Thompson a total of $32,500, the policy’s limit, for the theft of the painting and other valuable items.

Fast forward to 2007. The painting was recovered and turned over to the Concord police. […]

But the appeals court ruled, in a nine-page decision written by Judge Cynthia J. Cohen, that an agreement signed by Thompson allowed her estate two options: to turn the painting over to the insurance company or to simply pay the insurance company back the $25,000 it had paid out.

Court Awards Valuable Painting to Concord Woman’s Estate (Boston Globe)