Stolen Picasso Turns Up During Paris Drug Bust
Artnet News reported that French police recovered a stolen Pablo Picasso painting during a drug-trafficking raid in Champigny-sur-Marne, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, on June 15. The authenticated but publicly unnamed work is from Picasso’s portrait series of Marie-Thérèse Walter and was described by the police union Alliance Police Nationale as worth “tens of millions of euros,” with ownership attributed to a woman from Singapore. Police seized nearly 40 pounds of cannabis, €7,000 (about $8,000) in cash, and €200,000 (about $229,000) in luxury clothing, and six people were arrested, including a 37-year-old security guard at a Paris art-storage firm who allegedly admitted taking the painting from the depot. Two suspects were released, four appeared in court on June 19, and French media reported a trial is expected in August; the article also notes that a related Walter portrait, Woman in Beret and Checkered Dress (1937), sold for £49.8 million at Sotheby’s London in 2018.
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This story was covered in Blockbuster Museums, Hot Markets, and Missing Masterpieces