The mystery of a small and very valuable picture by the Spanish artist Joaqu\u00edn Sorolla that vanished over the weekend has been solved after a man told police he had mistaken the painting for junk when he found it on a Seville street but rescued it because he liked the frame.<\/p>\n
Rather than being entranced by the painting\u2019s subject matter \u2013 two boats off a beach \u2013 Andr\u00e9s Hurtado was instead captivated by its handsome gold frame.<\/p>\n
What Hurtado, 57, did not know when he happened across the work last Saturday was that it was a painting by Sorolla, a late 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish artist renowned for his mastery of light and his beach scenes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nor did he know that the painting belonged to a Seville family who have owned it for many years, and who were in the habit of taking it on holiday with them. They had intended to pack the picture into the boot of their car as they headed to the beach but had accidentally left it leaning against a wall and driven off.<\/p>\n By the time they realised what had happened, the painting was gone. Despite putting up posters appealing for information to help them locate \u201ca painting of great sentimental value\u201d \u2013 but carefully avoiding any mention of Sorolla or the picture\u2019s value \u2013 they drew a blank until Tuesday.<\/p>\n It has subsequently emerged that Hurtado, who lives 325 miles (525km) away in Murcia, had found the painting while in Seville with his family for the weekend and assumed someone had thrown it out.<\/p>\n \u201cWe picked it up because of the frame, not because of the painting,\u201d he told Radio Sevilla<\/a> on Wednesday. After taking it back to Murcia, he set about researching the picture using AI and learned that it could be a Sorolla.<\/p>\n \u201cThe AI came up with some crazy prices, so I looked online and called an auction house in Madrid,\u201d Hurtado told El Mundo<\/a>. \u201cI sent them pictures and they came back to me very quickly, saying it was an original Sorolla.\u201d<\/p>\n But his time with the painting \u2013 valued at up to \u20ac150,000 (\u00a3130,000) \u2013 was short-lived. When news reached him of the \u201cstolen\u201d painting, complete with a picture supplied by the owners, he knew what he had to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI rang the police straight away and told them the news wasn\u2019t true,\u201d he told the paper. \u201cI told them I hadn\u2019t stolen it but just picked it up in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n Police have now returned the painting to the family in Seville, who have promised Hurtado a \u201csmall present\u201d by way of thanks.<\/p>\n