Interesting. Guess the Alpine mail client did indeed override it when I installed it. So if I get the theme back, the theme will overwrite the client? (frankly I'm just looking for the wallpaper, I'm satisfied with my current theme otherwise)
sudo gainroot apt-get install alpine=1.0.1 -dy mkdir /home/user/MyDocs/alpine dpkg -x /var/cache/apt/archives/alpine_1.0.1.deb /home/user/MyDocs/alpine cp /home/user/MyDocs/alpine/opt/themes/alpine/backgrounds/wallpaper*.jpg /home/user/MyDocs/alpine
rm -rf /home/user/MyDocs/alpine/opt rm /home/user/MyDocs/alpine/wallpaper.jpg