Spanish police are investigating the disappearance of a tiny Picasso painting that vanished while being transported from Madrid to Granada, according to local media.
Valued at โฌ600,000 ($640,000), the gouache and pencil artwork titled โNaturaleza muerta con guitarraโ (Still Life with Guitar), was intended for display at an exhibition organized by the CajaGranada Foundation. However, the piece โ created in 1919 and measuring 12.7cm by 9.8cm โ never arrived.
Owned by a private collector in Madrid, it was part of a consignment of loaned exhibits that arrived by van on Friday, October 3. While deliveries were unloaded and checked, some packaged works had not been numbered, complicating verification. The following Monday, artworks under video surveillance were unpacked.
โOnce the unpacking had been done by the CajaGranada foundationโs own staff, the works were moved to different parts of the exhibition room,โ the foundation said. โMid-morning that day, the exhibitionโs curator and the foundationโs head of exhibitions noticed that one work was missing.โ
The foundation reported the paintingโs disappearance to the police. Spanish media suggest that the van may have stopped overnight near Granada, with two individuals aboard possibly taking turns guarding its valuable cargo.
Born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Pablo Picassoโs works have frequently attracted thieves due to their high value. The most costly theft occurred in February 2007, when two Picasso paintings worth around $54 million were stolen from his granddaughterโs home. One of Franceโs largest ever art robberies involved 118 pieces of his work being stolen from a museum in Avignon in 1976.
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