A Dallas woman said she feels like she's lost her grandmother twice after her portrait disappeared from the airport.
Stephanie Burroughs' "yiayia" (Greek for "grandmother") died last week in Missouri of natural causes. On Monday, she lost the only portrait she has of her beloved grandma traveling by plane back to North Texas.
"I carried it, like I said, through security. I carried it on the plane; it was checked in through the front of the plane," Burroughs said.
The Dallas interior designer figured she lost the charcoal portrait or someone grabbed it outside of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
"It wasn't packaged, it wasn't wrapped -- you couldn't mistake this for something else," she said. "This was not a handbag or a suitcase. This was a portrait of a woman in the 1960s."
Burroughs said she only realized it was not in the car when she arrived home and couldn't find it. She initially thought her husband had packed it up.
"My heart dropped. We knew immediately -- the painting? Where is the painting?" she said.
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Burroughs said the portrait is not an antique. It was painted in 1967 in Dallas at an American Hellenic Education Progressive Association convention, a meeting of Greek-Americans, by an unknown Dallas artist.
It has no monetary value, but plenty of emotional worth to her and her family.
"This is my family. This is our legacy. We called her the 'queen bee.' She was the queen of our family," Burroughs said.
DFW Airport police are working on the case, but haven't found the piece of art. Burroughs is also offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who turns it in, no questions asked.
To turn in the portrait, call DFW Airport police at 972-574-5530 or drop it off at Stephanie Anne, a boutique located on 2 Highland Park Village, or call 214-368-3025.
