Since this Saturday, a family from Seville has been searching for a lost painting that they left forgotten on the street, when they were preparing to go to the beach on vacation. The work, apart from “a great sentimental value”, has a high economic value because it is a canvas by Joaquín Sorolla that “has been in the family for a long time, it was not bought”, sources from the owner family, very affected by the disappearance, have clarified.
As confirmed to EL PAÍS, last Saturday a family member was leaving for their vacation spot by car. When leaving the garage, located at number 5 on the central Rafael González Abreu street in Seville, he left the painting on the sidewalk to load the luggage in the trunk. The painting was supposed to travel too, but the driver got into the car and left it forgotten. It was upon reaching his destination that he realized that the canvas had been abandoned on the street, but when he returned to get it, it was no longer on the façade of the building, where he had left it leaning. That same Saturday, they filed a complaint with the National Police at the Centro district police station, in Alameda de Hércules.
Official Police sources have detailed that the whereabouts of this small work, which represents two boats on the beach, are being investigated. In this regard, they have indicated that at the moment there are no clues about its location, nor about what exactly happened after the painting was involuntarily abandoned by its owners. They have clarified that, in any case, it would be theft, since being on the street and not having used violence or intimidation to obtain it, it cannot be considered a robbery.
The Penal Code establishes in its article 234 that it is considered a crime of theft to “take the movable property of others without the will of its owner”, punishable by prison sentences of six to eighteen months if the amount stolen exceeds 400 euros. Article 235 also establishes that it will be punished with a prison sentence of one to three years “when things of artistic, historical, cultural or scientific value are stolen”, as is the case. According to the owners, the Police have already analyzed images from the video surveillance cameras in the area. In one of them, they say, several people are seen approaching the painting and taking it, although no further information has been revealed.
To try to speed up the search, the family posted posters in Spanish and English requesting citizen collaboration to locate it. In the text they indicate that it is a “painting of great sentimental value” and offer a reward “if anyone has found it.” However, no details had been given about the authorship, which has multiplied interest in research as it is one of the great masters of painting of the 19th and 20th centuries. The owners have also not wanted to clarify the price of the lost canvas, insisting that it is a piece “that has been in the family for many years.”