(rshsdepot) OWL's Pics Found

["jdent1_@_optonline.net" <jdent1@optonline.net>]

Hundreds of photographer's stolen prints surface in Pennsylvania

=20
By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press Writer

May 30, 2003, 6:51 PM EDT


WHITE PLAINS, N=2EY=2E -- Hundreds of prints stolen from the late photogra=
pher
O=2E Winston Link _ and some negatives that may never have been printed fr=
om
_ have been found in a rented Pennsylvania storage room following the
arrest of his ex-wife, the Westchester district attorney said Friday=2E=20=


The storage unit had been rented to Edward Hayes, the new husband of Link'=
s
ex-wife, Conchita Mendoza Link, said District Attorney Jeanine Pirro=2E
Conchita Link spent six years in prison for stealing 1,400 of the
photographer's prints, then worth $2 million, but she never disclosed wher=
e
they were=2E=20

Conchita Link, 67, was paroled in 2001, a few months after O=2E Winston Li=
nk
died=2E She and Hayes, 63, were arrested Thursday after about 30 of the
prints turned up on the eBay Internet auction site and were traced to her=2E=
=20

Investigators developed leads that brought them to the storage unit in
Hamilton Township, Pa=2E, about 15 miles from where Hayes and Conchita Lin=
k
lived in Gettysburg, Pirro said=2E=20

"We found most of the remaining prints for which she went to prison," Pirr=
o
said=2E "In addition to that, we found original negatives of work by Link
that we believe have not yet been printed=2E"=20

Meanwhile, Conchita Link and Hayes were arraigned in Town Court in Yorktow=
n
on charges of conspiring to sell stolen property=2E Link was held on $250,=
000
bail, Hayes on $50,000=2E The district attorney said that even if Conchita=

Link makes bail, she is likely to remain in custody because she was still
on parole when she was arrested=2E=20

O=2E Winston Link was best known for documenting the end of American steam=

railroading with dramatically lighted photographs of engines puffing smoke=

into the nighttime country air=2E Though his photos were taken in the 1950=
s,
he did not find fame until the 1980s=2E=20

Experts in his work were delighted by the discoveries=2E=20

"If they're finding hundreds, it should have a tremendously positive effec=
t
on his market," said Robert Mann, a Manhattan gallery owner who has
exhibited Link's work=2E "I don't know what's in that collection but my gu=
ess
is it's a lot of his greatest hits, and these are mostly signed prints=2E=20=


"As for the negatives that were never printed from, that's also a real
extraordinary find," Mann said=2E "That means the estate can probably
generate prints from them and we can probably learn more about Winston and=

how he worked as an artist=2E"=20

Thomas Garber, who was Link's agent and is now the organizing curator of a=

Link museum expected to open in Roanoke, Va=2E, said most of the recovered=

prints probably would not be the railroad photos for which Link is most
famous=2E He was hoping that a series Link did on the construction of the
Verrazano Bridge would be among the prints recovered=2E=20

Pirro said the recovered prints would be used as evidence and eventually
turned over to Link's estate=2E=20

Link, who was born in Brooklyn and lived in South Salem, was 86 when he
died in 2001

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