Spanish police are investigating the disappearance of a Pablo Picasso painting, which is believed to have gone missing en route to an exhibition. This was reported by UNN with reference to CNN.
Details
It is noted that the 1919 gouache work "Still Life with Guitar", measuring only 12.7 × 9.8 cm (5 × 3.9 inches), was supposed to appear at an exhibition from October 9 as part of a temporary exhibition at the CajaGranada Cultural Center in the southern Spanish city of Granada.
The painting belongs to a private collector and is insured for approximately 600,000 euros (700,000 US dollars)
The CajaGranada Foundation, which manages the cultural center, reported that on the eve of the exhibition's opening, on Friday, October 17, a scheduled van from the transport company arrived at the cultural center to deliver works from Madrid.
According to the center, all exhibits were transported in one continuous stage from the van to a freight elevator, which simultaneously lifted all transport company employees from floor -1 to floor 1.
After that, the exhibits were moved from the elevator to the exhibition hall under video surveillance. After checking the origin of various packages, the exhibition manager arranged with the transport company to process the delivery before unpacking the exhibits the following Monday. Throughout the weekend, the packages were constantly under video surveillance, and unpacking began at 8:30 on Monday. The records were checked, and no incidents were recorded during the weekend.
By mid-morning, CajaGranada Foundation staff had finished unpacking the works and arranged them in the room. It was then that the exhibition curator and head of exhibitions discovered the disappearance of Picasso's painting "Still Life with Guitar" (in Spanish - "Naturaleza muerta con guitarra")
After that, the foundation reported the disappearance of the work to the police.
The report states that video recordings from the weekend were checked, and no incidents were recorded.
An investigation is currently underway to determine when and where the painting disappeared
According to CNN, thieves are often interested in Picasso paintings, the price of which at auctions can reach 179 million dollars.
Recall
A private detective and an art magazine discovered a Bruegel painting stolen from a Polish museum in 1974. The masterpiece, presumably stolen by intelligence agents, was found at an exhibition in the Gouda Museum.