A federal judge ruled on Friday in favor of the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in the twisted tale of a stolen Renoir painting that a Virginia woman says she found for $7 at a flea market in 2009. 

Martha Fuqua, 51, had hoped to net about $100,000 from the sale of the painting at auction, but her hopes were dashed when evidence was found that the painting was swiped from the BMA decades ago.

When “On the Shore of the Seine," Renoir's tiny landscape of 1879, came up for sale at Potomock Company in 2012, media attention was quickly turned to the woman's story of finding the painting at a West Virginia flea market. Provenance research showed a link to collector Saidie May which led to a connection to the BMA and the story of the painting's disappearance began to unravel.

Upon discovering a police report and other evidence of its theft, the BMA then filed documents in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, claiming legal ownership of the Renoir which was stolen from an exhibit there in 1951. The museum demanded its return on the grounds that a purchase of the purloined painting, even without knowledge of its theft, does not make it legally owned. The FBI confiscated the painting.

Martha Fuqua claimed she is an "innocent owner" and had no idea of the painting being stolen. Even so, the federal judge agreed last week with the BMA that stolen property can not be sold.

According to the Washington Post, relatives and friends of Fuqua have said they had seen the painting in her mother's home in the 1980s or 90s. Her mother, Marcia Fouquet, was a trained painter who specialized in reproducing masterpieces, including works by Renoir. She died five months ago.

The BMA plans to exhibit works from donor Saidie May in March, including "On the Shore of the Seine."