New evidence links a former New York City couple to the heist of a $160 million Willem de Kooning painting that was discovered hanging in their bedroom by a nephew after their deaths.

The prized work, titled “Woman-Ochre,” was swiped from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson in 1985 when a man walked into the gallery and used a blade to slice the painting out of its frame, while a female accomplice distracted a guard.

Within 15 minutes, the two bandits had walked out of the museum with the work rolled up under the man’s jacket.

It wasn’t until 32 years later, in August 2017, that the 40-by-30-inch oil painting was discovered, when Ron Roseman was clearing out his favorite aunt and uncle’s New Mexico home after their deaths.

Now, a newly discovered photo shows Roseman’s relatives, Rita and Jerome “Jerry” Alter, spending Thanksgiving Day 1985 in Tucson a day before the heist.

In the image, which Roseman shared with the Arizona Republic, the couple — New Yorkers in their 50s who’d moved to rural New Mexico — are beaming side by side at a dinner table in front of plates of pumpkin pie.

Still, Roseman wants to believe that their presence in Arizona around the time of the theft is just happenstance — and that they obtained the work somewhere else.

“We have no idea when they got it, how they got it, if they were involved, if they bought it from someone. Ultimately there’s a lot of coincidence,” he told the Republic.

But it turns out the couple — him a retired music teacher, she a speech pathologist — left other interesting clues.

They almost exclusively drove red cars, their nephew said — and a witness to the theft said the pair of thieves made off in a rust-color sports car.

Most outlandishly, the pair self-published three books they’d written together, and one short story was about a heist with details similar to the de Kooning theft.

In a collection of short stories titled “The Cup and The Lip: Exotic Tales,” one tale follows a grandmother and granddaughter as they case a city art museum and rob a 120-carat emerald. The jewel is kept hidden “several miles away” from the museum behind a secret panel “for two pairs of eyes, exclusively, to see.”

The Alters, world travelers who’d visited every continent and 140 countries, often spoke about their love of art, Roseman said, and their home was filled with interesting pieces.

The naive nephew inadvertently sold the de Kooning and other artworks to David van Aucker, the co-owner of an antique shop, for $2,000 last August.

When Aucker originally removed the painting from a wall behind the Alters’ bedroom door, it left an outline on the wall, indicating the work had been there for quite some time.

“I honestly believe that it had been there since the day it was stolen,” he said.

An eagle-eyed antiquarian pointed out to Aucker that the painting seemed like a real work by the abstract expressionist master, and after doing some research, Aucker called the FBI.

Museum officials also believe the painting was only reframed once after it was stolen, a possible sign that it hadn’t passed through multiple owners.

An FBI investigation into the heist is still ongoing and officials wouldn’t comment on possible thieves.