Picasso painting recovered in French drug raid was stolen ‘opportunistically’, police source says

French police recovered a stolen Pablo Picasso portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter during a drug raid on 15 June in Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris, according to Le Parisien. The Brigade des Stupéfiants reportedly seized 20kg of cannabis, €200,000 in luxury clothes, and €7,000 in cash, and a police source said the theft appeared “opportunistic,” with the group unsure how to profit from the artwork. Four men appeared in court on 19 June, and one confessed to multiple thefts from a Paris storage facility where he worked as a security guard. The painting is valued at around €12 million and had been authenticated by Claude Picasso during a sale process involving a Paris dealer and a buyer in Singapore. The report noted prior major Picasso theft cases in Paris, including the 2010 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris heist and a 2022 conviction of two gallerists for selling stolen Picasso works.

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