Painting Found After 14 Years : Art: The 18th-Century work was stolen from the San Gabriel Mission. It was recovered from the nearby house of an antiquities thief, FBI says.

Stolen 14 years ago from the altar of the San Gabriel Mission, a venerated 18th-Century painting of the Virgin Mary is about to be returned to its rightful spot after being found in the nearby house of a convicted antiquities thief, the FBI announced Friday.

Also recovered from the San Gabriel house were two other religious paintings, a sculpture and other artifacts stolen from the San Fernando Mission about a decade ago, as well as 330 books taken from the San Gabriel Mission and libraries in Los Angeles and around the country.

But the most important find, FBI and church officials said, is “La Dolorosa” (“Our Lady of Sorrows”), a painting of the grieving Mary that is best known in Roman Catholic history for reportedly helping to save the founders of the San Gabriel Mission in 1771. A band of attacking Indians were said to have put down their weapons when the missionaries held up the painting.

“It’s always been very special,” said Mary Hales, a regional secretary for the Claretian Missionaries, which runs the San Gabriel Mission. “It’s really kind of miraculous that it should turn up so close to home.”

The painting, other artworks and books turned up in January, 1990, during an FBI search of the San Gabriel home, which belongs to the parents of William March Witherell. At the time, he was a suspect in a theft from the University of Pennsylvania library of two 18th-Century books by Benjamin Franklin, valued at about $60,000, said Linda Vizi, an FBI spokeswoman in Philadelphia. Witherell was sentenced in November to a federal prison term of a year and a day for that theft.

Meanwhile, the confiscated items in the Witherell house were moved to Philadelphia. It took 18 months and much consulting with art experts to locate the rightful owners. Vizi said the artworks would be shipped to California within a week or so.

There will be a warm welcome home for “La Dolorosa” at the San Gabriel Mission, according to Pastor Gary Smith. The painting, he said, represents a peaceful moment in the history of colonial California, a period that sparks debates over how church leaders treated Indians.

“In all honesty, any historical evidence of two cultures like that treating each other with respect and not violence is important,” Smith said Friday. “I think the church should hold up any success stories where people grew in tolerance and understanding.”

According to an 18th-Century account, missionaries encamped near what is now the San Gabriel Mission were met by a band of hostile Indians. After a priest showed the painting, the Indians reportedly “were so overcome by the serenity and beauty of the painting, they immediately quieted and the chiefs gave their beads as a gift to ‘Our Lady of Sorrows.’ ”

Norman Neuerburg, an expert on California mission art, said that, minus its history, the unsigned “La Dolorosa” would be a “run of the mill” 18th-Century painting from Mexico, worth only a few hundred dollars. But its history makes the work priceless, he said.

The San Fernando Mission will be getting back two 18th-Century paintings depicting religious scenes--one of the “Annunciation” and one of “Hagar and the Angel”--and a small 18th-Century wooden sculpture of the Madonna and the infant Jesus, as well as some small artifacts. Kevin Feeney, curator at the San Fernando Mission, said the works were taken from a room used by colonial governors and will be back on display there.

Witherell allegedly conducted book-theft sprees at universities and libraries throughout the nation, FBI officials said. He allegedly stole 10 books from the San Gabriel Mission, including a 15th-Century volume of Gregorian chants and a 16th-Century compilation of papal decrees. And officials suspect he took at least 320 more from the Los Angeles Public Library and universities in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Alaska.

Romaine Ahlstrom, the collection development manager at the Los Angeles Public Library, said the most important of the library’s books recovered from the Witherell house was an 1840s book about Mexican antiquities.

FBI spokeswoman Vizi said no federal charges will be brought against Witherell in connection with the California thefts because he did not take the items out of state. The missions and the Los Angeles library have not pressed charges.

According to press accounts of his trial in Philadelphia, Witherell, 40, was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and lived out of his truck for the past decade. His parents were said to be cooperating with the investigation and were not arrested.

At the San Gabriel Mission, there was other happy news. Friday’s earthquake caused only minor damage to the mission’s oldest buildings, which had been badly damaged in the October, 1987, earthquake and have been closed since.