Norman Rockwell’s Russian Schoolroom is a painting with possibly the strangest backstories of all time.

In 1973, the painting was stolen from an art gallery in St. Louis. This art robbery remained a mystery for nearly 40 years…until, in 2007, the missing painting was found in the personal art collection of Steven Spielberg. The famous director had purchased the painting in the late 1980s, unaware that it was stolen.

The painting had some very strange links to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Russell Byers is the man who allegedly masterminded the art theft in 1973, and he was also a key witness during the House Select Committee on Assassinations hearings in 1978, during which the assassination of MLK was re-investigated.

Byers’ brother in law John Spica was friends with James Earl Ray. Spica later died when dynamite was planted under his car during the 1980s St. Louis Gang Wars.