Woman Saw 2 Men Putting Stolen Art Into Waiting Car

Federal agents joined Cambridge detectives yesterday in the search for three missing Jackson Pollock paintings stolen Thursday afternoon from the Cambridge apartment of Reginald R. Isaacs, Norton Professor of Regional Planning.

Cambridge detective Lt. Fidele Centrella said last night that he had talked with a woman who saw two men put the paintings in a car. He said that the woman "caught a good glimpse of the two men and of the car."

He declined to reveal the description given by the woman.

The paintings are worth an estimated $500,000. New York art experts refused yesterday to give a precise appraisal of the three works.

Donald McKinney, president of the Marlborough Gallery in New York and the representative of the Pollock estate, said through his secretary that he would not give a value for the paintings because "he had not seen them in many years."

The three stolen paintings were a Pollock black and white called "No. 7, 1951"; an unnamed 1948 work from his drip period; and an untitled 1949 work, also from the drip period.

Police speculated yesterday that the two thieves left by a fire escape located at the side of the building. The woman apparently saw the thieves on the fire escape and watched them carry the paintings into a waiting car.

Isaacs and Pollock, an American expressionist, met in 1946. Isaacs was a pallbearer at Pollock's funeral in 1956.

Pollock, born in Wyoming in 1912, painted in an abstract expressionistic style. He laid his canvas flat on the floor, rather than standing it up at an angle.