Artist: Ellen Harvey The painting "Low Tech Special Effects:  Monsters (Julia)" was stolen from an exhibition in 2000.  After years of trolling through E-bay hoping to find it, I'm now selling the work to any interested purchaser.  A unique opportunity to own a valuable piece of contemporary art without any of the hassles of physical ownership unless of course you're the person who stole it, in which case, this is your chance to make things right. In exchange for your bid and your agreement that I can document the painting if recovered, I undertake to do my best to provide you with the necessary documentation to transfer ownership (copyright not included, as is customary) of "Low Tech Special Effects: Monster (Julia)" to you so that you will be able to make a legal claim for it in the event that it is ever found.  Who knows, maybe it will even show up on E-bay some day. The painting was stolen in 2000 from my solo exhibition "Painting is a Low Tech Special Effect" at De Chiara/Stewart Gallery.  The gallery was located at 521 W. 26th Street, New York, NY 10001; it has since closed. The exhibition was from June 1 to July 1, 2000 and the painting was stolen in the first couple of days of the exhibition.  It has not been seen since. The painting is part of a series of paintings called "Low Tech Special Effects: Monsters" which consisted of paintings based on Polaroids of friends of mine who had been asked to "be a monster."  In this case, the painting is based on a Polaroid of my college roommate Julia. Unfortunately, I do not have an image of it as it was stolen before it could be photographed.  I have included an image of the Polaroid on which the painting was based to allow for identification. I have also included images of some of the other paintings in the series for reference. The painting is in oils on board with a 1/2 inch wooden support.  It is 5 inches x 5 1/2 inches in size.  It was not framed.    The painting should be signed "Ellen Harvey" on the back and dated either 2000 or 1999.  It may have the text "Monsters (Julia)" on the back.  I remember it as a particularly nice painting and I was very sorry to lose it.  Obviously someone else felt the same way. Images from this series have been featured in Harpers Magazine and Le Journal des Arts.  The exhibition "Painting is a Low Tech Special Effect" was reviewed in Time Out New York, Artnet & the Village Voice.  Paintings from this series were most recently exhibited in 2005 in the Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig, Germany in the exhibition "Polaroid als Geste" and were also included in the accompanying catalog  "Polaroid als Geste", edited by Meike Kröncke, Barbara Lauterbach & Rolf F. Nohr, published by Hatje Cantz.  Images of the series are also included in "Ellen Harvey: Mirror", by Alex Baker & Shamim Momin, published by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 2006.  I believe they are also included in an upcoming catalog of the West Collection.  None of the paintings in this series have been put up for auction, as far as I know, so I do not know what they would sell for in the current art market.