A small painting by Pablo Picasso — just five by four inches but worth nearly three-quarters of a half-million dollars — remains missing after disappearing earlier this month while in transit from a Madrid museum.
The piece was part of artwork collected from private collectors and was intended for the “Still Life: The Immortality of the Inanimate” exhibition at a museum in Granada, about 260 miles south of the country’s capital. According to To news reports.
A truck carrying dozens of those paintings, including Picasso’s, arrived at the Cajagranada Cultural Center after its four-hour journey on Friday, October 3. But when museum staff opened the boxes the following Monday, Picasso’s work was nowhere to be found.
The small painting depicts an abstract interior scene of a guitar lying on a table and is titled Still life with guitar.
The painting is insured for $700,000 According to to Smithsonian Magazine.
The CajaGranada Foundation has contacted the Spanish National Police Force, which is now investigating. According to the foundation, security cameras showed that nothing suspicious happened over the weekend before the artworks were unloaded.
Granada police said, “An investigation is currently underway, and the investigation is trying to determine when and where the painting disappeared.” He said In an official statement.
The National Police of Granada has also been added to the international database of stolen works of art.
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) in front of one of his paintings, circa 1955, at his home in Cannes. (George Stroud/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty)
According to investigators, the transport truck left Madrid on the afternoon of October 2, but made an unscheduled overnight stop in the small town of Devontes, just miles from Granada, according to a report by ABC News.
That stop has now become the main focus of the investigation after the two drivers told police they took turns sleeping in or near the truck to keep an eye on the valuable cargo.
“It’s crazy,” Arthur Brand, one of Europe’s most famous art investigators, told ABC. “If you are transporting works of art of this value, do not stop overnight after four hours. Deliver them immediately. Doing otherwise is very suspicious.”
Brand, who has worked several grand theft cases, also told the network that insider interference may have played a role.
“In many art thefts, there are insiders – people who inform the criminals or are part of the plan,” he said. “Anyone with inside knowledge of the schedule or security can make it a lot easier.”
The technical investigator also told the network that he is optimistic about solving the theft.
“Spain has some of the best art crime investigators in the world,” he said. “If anyone can find this painting, they can — and if they don’t, I will. One way or another, it will be found.”
Contributor Lowell Covell is a best-selling author Below the line And nine crime novels and other non-fiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com For more