MADRID: Spanish police announced on Friday that they have recovered a 1919 Pablo Picasso painting that disappeared earlier this month, before it was due to be displayed at an exhibition in southern Spain.
The small, framed artwork titled ‘Still Life with Guitar’ valued $700,000 was part of a larger shipment of pieces transported from Madrid to Granada. Organisers of the exhibition filed a police report on October 10 after discovering the painting was missing when the shipment crates were unpacked.
In a post on X, police said the painting may not have been loaded onto the transport truck before the shipment left Madrid. The historical heritage brigade was continuing its investigation, the statement said, without indicating whether police believed any crime had been committed.
Police released photos showing forensic experts in full sterile bodysuits and masks examining the recovered Picasso painting.
Authorities had listed the artwork—owned by a private collector—in Interpol’s global database of Stolen Works of Art, which contains nearly 57,000 registered items.
The CajaGranada Foundation, which organised the exhibition, said security footage revealed that only 57 pieces were unloaded from the transport vehicle upon arrival—one fewer than the 58 artworks originally shipped.
The loss of the small but valuable Picasso work recalls other cases in recent years where his paintings have been stolen and later recovered, including incidents in Greece and Belgium.
Created during Picasso’s post-Cubist period, ‘Still Life with Guitar’ is considered a significant example of the artist’s early twentieth-century experimentation with abstract form.
