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Sarasota News Leader May 3, 2013 After her father died and her mother moved away, Stieff says she recalls her mother receiving a letter from a prominent woman in Sarasota, asking about what to do with the painting. It seemed the library collection was being moved to another building. She had forgotten about that letter until her brother, Leonard, brought it up "a thousand years later," when she and Leonard again were in Sarasota. Stieff made a few attempts to find the painting, with no success. "End of chapter," she told him. Page 80 Stieff says, and, in the course of conversation, ended up offering to help with sorting through what had become an enormous collection of material. In the process, Walk and Lillian found a photo of L'Enfant Malade. Recognizing it as fine art, Walk then began trying to track it down, Stieff says. Some time later, Stieff continues, Aaron De Groft, the deputy director of the museum, received a call from a person on staff at Sotheby's in Miami; the man was seeking the same painting. Records indicated it was in the collection of Owen Burns of Sarasota, the man reported. However, after Stieff's older sister, Lillian, moved back to Sarasota, Lillian began collecting memorabilia about the community. Deborah Walk, a curator at The John and Mable De Groft called Walk to his office, Stieff conRingling Museum of Art, "ran into Lil one day," tinues, telling her about the "weird call" he Owen Burns' office was on Broadway. Photo courtesy Sarasota County Department of Historical Resources