SAN DIEGO—On Wednesday, August 23, 2006, the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) is restituting a painting that depicts The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden to U.S. Customs Officials who will then transfer the artwork to Mexican government officials. The painting, which the Museum purchased in late 2000 from a Mexico City dealer, was determined to have been stolen from a small church in Hidalgo, Mexico, through an investigation carried out by the U.S. Department of Justice in conjunction with Mexican government officials. The Museum has already been reimbursed for the full purchase price of the object by the Mexico City–based art dealer who sold the Expulsion to SDMA.

In October 2004, Mexican federal government representatives, using official channels, informed SDMA that they were actively investigating circumstances surrounding the theft of an 18th-century painting, one of three religious objects apparently taken from a church in San Juan Tepemazalco in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico, in early 2000. Pursuant to a mutual Assistance Treaty between the two governments, the U.S. Attorney's Office and SDMA fully cooperated in the investigation. In early December 2004, the Museum announced that the painting would be restituted.

"We are pleased to have this matter resolved and are grateful for the professionalism and cooperative spirit on the part of officials from the U.S. Department of Justice," states the Museum's executive director, Derrick Cartwright. "Safeguarding national patrimony is one of the most critical and complex issues in the art world of our time. Theft of cultural property, irrespective of its monetary value, is a deeply troubling fact facing all museums today. Doing the right thing in this instance was the obvious course of action for the San Diego Museum of Art."

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden was not on display in the galleries when SDMA was notified of the investigation, nor has it been on display since. The Museum, however, continued to safeguard the painting until the logistics of its return through the proper government authorities could be determined.

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