"Port Washington Point" now hangs in the administrative offices of BYU's museum, built after the losses were discovered with state-of-the-art security systems. The museum is run under strict procedures and guidelines. Those policies prevented Lemmon from holding the latest recovered painting during a photo shoot for this story.

Deep inside the museum, Poulsen maintains a file on every missing work, the critical key to any recovery. When ALR located "Port Washington Point," Poulsen had a strong file that included a photo of the painting and a Knoedler number of 257. The number corresponded with an inventory of the Young collection done by Knoedler when it was donated to BYU.

"That's gold for us," Lemmon said.

Many of the files aren't good enough to prove ownership.

"The problem with the Met piece is our case just isn't strong enough," BYU Museum spokesman Chris Wilson said. "The great thing that came out of this was that we now have a professional museum that operates on international standards and has an excellent database.

"We make sure now our records are good enough on pieces we acquire now and have acquired in the past so we can show provenance and prove we are the owners."

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The only other person prosecuted in BYU's art case was Wesley Burnside, an art history professor who managed the art collection during the thefts.

"There wasn't a criminal bone in his body," Lemmon said. "He was a single man who was a devout member of the LDS Church, and his mission in life was to build a museum on the BYU campus. I've often said Wes Burnside's mistress was the art collection.

"The downside with Wes Burnside, with all his good intent, was he was very gullible. A circle of seven or eight criminals wined and dined him and raped the collection. He sold off pieces he didn't think were the core of our collection without permission from the campus committee and made unauthorized trades. A pack of wolves preyed on him. They were really sharp. He was in way over his head.

"He died a broken man" in 1994, Lemmon said. "The reason we prosecuted him was to establish criminal acts had taken place."

Burnside pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully dealing with property by a fiduciary and he cooperated with police.

"There's some real sad sides to this," said Lemmon, who declined to name other suspects and has turned down offers to do a book. "It destroyed Wes Burnside. People wouldn't leave him alone. I think it's better left alone."

Some of the suspects are rich, with high-profile attorneys.

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