Continuing our celebration of Heart and Soul of Golden month, this is the seventh in a series of articles describing the histories of Golden Cultural Alliance members (and the second about Foothills Art Center!).
Foothills Art Center celebrated their grand opening on August 3, 1968. Their first exhibit was a group of paintings on loan from the Harmsen Western Art Collection.
Bill and Dorothy Harmsen were the owners of Jolly Rancher Candies. The company had started in downtown Golden, and it was here that they developed their famous hard candies. The couple were enthusiastic collectors of western art, owning more than 600 in 1968. They had never shown them in public before, but they permitted the new Foothills Art Center to borrow 41 of the best to celebrate the grand opening.
Less than three weeks later, disaster struck: 12 of the paintings were stolen. Art Center Director Irma Wyhs entered the facility on Thursday morning, August 22nd, and discovered the crime. Three antique guns had also been stolen.
Fortunately, the paintings were recovered. On September 8th, a Cherry Hills Village patrol officer noticed a suspicious vehicle. It left before he could investigate, but he had gotten the license plate number. He soon learned that a robbery had occurred in the neighborhood, so he used the license information to track down the owner at his Englewood address. There they found the paintings and other stolen articles, amounting to about $100,000 in value.
The man pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
