The National Police has found and identified Pablo Picasso’s painting in Madrid Still life with guitar, who had been missing since October 3, when he should have been transferred from the capital to Granada to take part in an exhibition. The agents believe that the painting surely never made it onto the transport truck and assure, in a press release, that the Historical Heritage Brigade keeps the investigation open, “once the Scientific Police specialists have carried out the inspection of the package in which the recovered work was found.”
The CajaGranada Foundation, responsible for the exhibition in which the work was to be exhibited, told EL PAÍS that they prefer not to make statements about the discovery because they are a party involved in the lawsuit. However, they confirmed that the rest of the pieces are on display and that, once the police investigations are concluded, they would like to incorporate the painting into the exhibition.
The packaging and other circumstances led to the suspicion that the work could be the picasso what was wanted, a small gouache and lead lead on paper, measuring 12.7 X 9.8 centimeters, something like the size of half a page, framed and insured for 600,000 euros. The piece, a minor painting by the artist, was sold a few years ago, according to Ledor Fine Art, which specializes in the sale of works by Picasso, for 60,000 euros.
The Police had been investigating the disappearance since October 10, when the CajaGranada Foundation formalized the complaint after verifying that the painting had not arrived, along with 56 other works that were moved from Madrid, to the cultural center where it was to be exhibited.
Still life with guitarfrom 1919, was stored along with the rest of the works on September 25 to travel to the CajaGranada Cultural Center, where from October 6 they would be part of the exhibition Still life. The eternity of the inert. The institution explained that on October 3, the transportation company appeared at the cultural center facilities to deliver the pieces, which was carried out with video surveillance. “As not all the packaging was properly numbered, it was not possible to do an exhaustive check without unpacking,” so certain checks were made and it was agreed to sign the consignment notes, pending unpacking on the 6th to be able to check accurately piece by piece, as explained by the entity.
It was this day when the lack of one of the works was detected, they reported it and the Police began the investigation to find out at what point in the transfer it disappeared, how and why. Shortly after, the National Police registered the painting in Interpol’s international database on stolen or missing art objects, which contains descriptions and images of more than 57,000 items.