Ex-UCLA Official Charged in Theft of Oil Painting

A former director of counseling at UCLA has been indicted in the theft of a 19th century oil painting from the university and selling it to a New York gallery, authorities said Wednesday.

Jane Crawford is accused of stealing “Frost Flowers, Ipswich 1889,” by American painter Arthur Wesley Dow, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Ranee Katzenstein.

Crawford, 50, of Van Nuys, was indicted late Tuesday in U.S. District Court on five counts of fraud. According to the indictment, Crawford stole the painting from the university in 1994 and sold it through a middle man to New York City’s Spanierman Art Gallery for $200,000.

In an interview with The Times, Crawford denied stealing the painting and said she had yet to be informed of her indictment. Crawford said the painting hung in her university office for months, and that a university official, whom she declined to identify, told her she could take it home.

“I acted in good faith, believing I had been given an unclaimed painting,” Crawford said. “Eventually I did sell it. I certainly did not know that the university had a claim to it.”

Katzenstein said Crawford had a business dispute with the alleged “middle man” who helped her sell the painting. As a result, the prosecutor said, he told authorities the piece was stolen. Officials at the Spanierman gallery had no knowledge that the painting was stolen, authorities said.

Crawford, who spent 23 years at UCLA, said she retired last month from her academic counseling position “in response to this whole controversy and problem.”