{"id":6322,"date":"2026-04-16T06:39:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/judicial-watch-sues-justice-department-for-records-on-unsolved-1-5-million-art-theft\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:39:54","slug":"judicial-watch-sues-justice-department-for-records-on-unsolved-1-5-million-art-theft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/judicial-watch-sues-justice-department-for-records-on-unsolved-1-5-million-art-theft\/","title":{"rendered":"Judicial Watch Sues Justice Department for Records on Unsolved $1.5 Million Art Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\t <\/p>\n

\tPress Releases<\/a>
\n\t|<\/span>
\n\t\tApril 15, 2026<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Stations of the Cross Paintings Vanished Overnight<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(Washington, DC)<\/span><\/b> \u2013 Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) <\/span>lawsuit<\/span><\/a><\/span> against the U.S. Department of Justice for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records regarding an unsolved $1.5 million art theft in 1969 in Sarasota, FL (<\/span>Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span> (1:26-cv-01166)). <\/span><\/p>\n

Ben Stahl<\/span><\/a><\/span>, an internationally acclaimed artist and illustrator, was commissioned by the Catholic Press to create 14 paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross. <\/span>\u201cThe Way of the Cross\u201d was a series of 6-foot by 9-foot paintings depicting the Good Friday events from Jesus\u2019 condemnation by Pontius Pilate to Jesus\u2019 body being placed in the tomb. One night in April 1969, the paintings were carefully removed from their frames and stolen from the Museum of the Cross. None were recovered.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The search for the truth was taken up by Stahl\u2019s children, particularly David Stahl, who <\/span>alleges<\/span><\/a><\/span> the investigation was mishandled by local police and the FBI. He cites irregularities including reportedly lost files due to floods and fires. Although the Sarasota Police Department reopened the case in 2013, no new leads emerged. <\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the Judicial Watch lawsuit, David Stahl submitted a FOIA<\/span> request to the Justice Department and received 12 fully redacted pages. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Judicial Watch sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the FBI failed to respond to a February 18, 2026, FOIA request for:<\/span><\/p>\n

All records in main files or cross-referenced files related to the investigation of artwork stolen in 1969 from the Museum of the Cross in Sarasota, Florida. Such records shall include, but not be limited to, investigative reports, witness summaries (Forms 1023), letterhead memoranda, agents\u2019 handwritten notes, communications in any form, crime scene photographs, fingerprints, evidence logs, and any other records. (This request slightly modified a similar request sent on Dec. 11, 2025 with a corrected year of the date of the art theft.) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be a straightforward search for records,\u201d said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. \u201cAfter more than five decades, the FBI should be able to find and release these records. The public deserves answers.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

###<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Press Releases | April 15, 2026 Stations of the Cross Paintings Vanished Overnight (Washington, DC) \u2013 Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records regarding an unsolved $1.5 million art theft in 1969 in Sarasota, FL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conservative-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/conservative-politics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}