It’s not every day that a major Picasso painting that has been lost, stolen or forged resurfaces. Sometimes, all three happen at once.
A missing Picasso that was believed to have been stolen in Spain has been found after a woman mistakenly took it home thinking it was a parcel.
Spanish police have safely recovered Still Life with Guitar, which vanished earlier this month when it was being sent on loan from a private collection in Madrid to an exhibition in Granada.
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.
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’s husband checked the box and realised what was in it. The couple then contacted police.
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 €600,000. According to the art dealer Ledor Fine Art, the piece was sold several years ago for about €60,000.
Still Life with Guitar, a small painting by Picasso from 1919, was safely recovered by police
SPANISH NATIONAL POLICE/AFP
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’s international database of stolen or missing art, which lists more than 57,000 items.
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.
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.
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 €8 million and could fetch double that, according to experts.
The auctioneer Christophe Lucien and art expert Agnes Sevestre-Barbe with Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat, 1943
EMMA DA SILVA/AP
The collector’s heirs discovered the work while settling his estate. “His children knew the painting was in a room at his home but didn’t realise its importance,” Christophe Lucien, the auctioneer, said. The family placed it in a safe deposit box before a notary called Lucien to value it.
“The rediscovery of this work is an event,” said Agnès Sevestre-Barbé, a Picasso specialist who described it as a significant addition to the artist’s wartime portraits of Maar.
Separately, police have seized millions of euros’ worth of forged art purportedly by Picasso, Rembrandt and Frida Kahlo 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.
Investigators first became suspicious when the man tried to sell two fake Picassos and later attempted to market a forged version of Rembrandt’s De Staalmeesters for 120 million Swiss francs, despite the original hanging in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The copy was owned by an 84-year-old Swiss woman, who is now under investigation. Police confirmed the painting was a fake after expert examination and seized it during a series of dawn raids on October 15.
During the searches, officers confiscated numerous other suspected forgeries, along with documents and digital records. Police said the suspect also attempted to sell 19 counterfeits attributed to Kahlo, Rubens, Modigliani and Joan Miró for sums ranging from €400,000 to €14 million.
A 74-year-old associate accused of preparing false expert reports was also arrested. Both men have been released pending further investigation.