Disbelief
David Van Auker had thought nothing of the abstract painting that he had acquired at the Alters’ estate until an artist had walked into his store and seen it, exclaiming “That’s a Willem De Kooning!” But the chances of him stumbling upon such a momentous piece of history only started to dawn on him once he had conducted some research. He read the article about the painting that was stolen from the Arizona Museum of Art and his eyes grew wide in their sockets.