(The Associated Press circulated the following article on April 20.)
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — The ex-wife of renowned railroad photographer O. Winston Link has been sentenced to prison for having a stolen cache of her late husband’s art.
Conchita Link Hayes, 68, and her new husband Edward Hayes, 64, of Gettysburg, Pa., admitted they had photographs belonging to Link’s estate. They were arrested in a May 29 sting and both pleaded guilty in Dutchess County Court to a felony count of possession of stolen property.
Prosecutors say the Hayes had about $500,000 worth of signed, stamped and stolen prints and were caught trying to sell some on an Internet auction site.
Their sentencing was adjourned two weeks ago to give both defendants time to reconsider their March guilty pleas.
In probation interviews later, Conchita Link Hayes said that if she were really of a criminal mind she would have sold her late husband’s art overseas to collectors. Edward Hayes said he believed the art had been left to his wife by Winston Link, who died in 2001.
“I’d like to thank the court for its wisdom,” Conchita Link Hayes said Monday.
Dutchess County Court Judge Gerald Hayes, who is not related to the couple, sentenced her to one and one-half to three years in state prison. She agreed to return Link’s art as part of a plea agreement. More than 300 prints had been seized. Some were found in a box, others in a locker near the couple’s home.
“I don’t know if you’re remorseful or not,” the judge said. “I get the impression you can’t accept the fact you had no legal right to these photos.”
Edward Hayes, who did not make a statement in court, received a one-year jail sentence.
Link captured black-and-white images of steam locomotives chugging through small American towns. He began in the 1950s but the work didn’t gain popularity until the early 1980s, when he was nearly 70. That’s when he married his second wife.
According to 1993 court records, Conchita Link Hayes tried to convince gallery owners that her husband had Alzheimer’s disease.
A judge granted Link an uncontested divorce and awarded him and his nephew $5 million in civil damages. Conchita Link Hayes served two months on a civil contempt charge for not returning her ex-husband’s property.