The police said in a statement that the painting, missing since October 3, never left the building where it was awaiting collection in Madrid. Sources close to the investigation told the Efe news agency that a transport company was meant to pick up the artwork from a building along with other pieces, but it was left behind in the entrance hall.<\/p>\n
A neighbour found the package and took it home for safekeeping, believing it was a delivery. Days later, after hearing news reports about the missing Picasso, the woman\u2019s husband checked the box and realised what was in it. The couple then contacted police.<\/p>\n
The parcel contained the missing 1919 artwork, painted in gouache and graphite on paper and measuring 12.7cm by 9.8cm, which was insured for \u20ac600,000. According to the art dealer Ledor Fine Art, the piece was sold several years ago for about \u20ac60,000.<\/p>\n
![\"Gouache](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/ac525546-b0ff-48ed-8cc1-3408ffce16ac.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Still Life with Guitar, a small painting by Picasso from 1919, was safely recovered by police<\/p>\n
SPANISH NATIONAL POLICE\/AFP<\/p>\n
The CajaGranada Foundation, which is staging the exhibition in which the painting was to be displayed, filed a complaint after discovering that the work had not arrived with 56 other pieces sent from Madrid. The artwork was subsequently entered into Interpol\u2019s international database of stolen or missing art, which lists more than 57,000 items.<\/p>\n
The foundation declined to comment, citing its involvement in legal proceedings, but confirmed that the other works were on display and said that once the investigation was complete, it hoped to include the Picasso in the exhibition, Still Life: the Eternity of the Inanimate, which opened on October 9.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in France, another lost Picasso has come to light after more than 80 years in private hands. The 1943 painting Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat, is a portrait of Dora Maar, who had a stormy nine-year relationship with the artist.<\/p>\n
It will be auctioned in Paris after the death of a collector who bought it directly from Picasso in 1944. Before that it is believed the painting was exhibited only a handful of times. It has a starting price of \u20ac8 million and could fetch double that, according to experts.<\/p>\n
![\"Agnes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/95b66b08-8db2-462d-b9fb-b1dfa6921b6b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The auctioneer Christophe Lucien and art expert Agnes Sevestre-Barbe with Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat, 1943<\/p>\n
EMMA DA SILVA\/AP<\/p>\n
The collector\u2019s heirs discovered the work while settling his estate. \u201cHis children knew the painting was in a room at his home but didn\u2019t realise its importance,\u201d Christophe Lucien, the auctioneer, said. The family placed it in a safe deposit box before a notary called Lucien to value it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rediscovery of this work is an event,\u201d said Agn\u00e8s Sevestre-Barb\u00e9, a Picasso specialist who described it as a significant addition to the artist\u2019s wartime portraits of Maar.<\/p>\n
Separately, police have seized millions of euros\u2019 worth of forged art purportedly by Picasso, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo<\/a> in co-ordinated raids across Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The Bavarian authorities said the main suspect, a 77-year-old German man, led a network of ten alleged accomplices accused of conspiracy and fraud.<\/p>\n