Update: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/07/europe/EU-GEN-France-Picasso-Theft.php
Update:
Three Picasso paintings stolen in Paris secured
French agents on Tuesday secured three paintings by Pablo Picasso, which had been stolen in Paris in February, the daily Le Figaro reported.
The perpetrators had been detained, the report said.
The pictures, worth more than 50 million euros (69 million dollars), were stolen from the apartment of Picasso granddaughter Diana Widmaier-Picasso.
The pictures had vanished without a trace and caused the Paris police problems because there were no traces of a break-in. Police suspected that the perpetrator had had intimate knowledge of the apartment.
The recovered paintings were portraits of Picasso's daughter Maya and his second wife Jacqueline.
Art Hostage Comments:
Inside job, credit to law enforcement for smoking these paintings out.
The revolving door of art theft and recovery turns slowly in the recovery direction, a little glimmer of hope perhaps?
Sadly, when professional criminals steal art it is much harder to recover than if a close family person is involved.
Update:
Stolen Picassos recovered
THREE people in possession of three works by Pablo Picasso stolen from the Paris flat of the artist's granddaughter have been caught by French police.
The paintings were stolen as she lay sleeping in February.
Police surveillance teams arrested the three suspects this morning in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. They have been detained awaiting charges as inquiries continue.
The two paintings and a drawing by the Spanish master, worth more than €50 million ($80.5 million), were taken from the flat of Diana Widmaier-Picasso overnight on February 26.
"The works are apparently in good condition," said Ms Widmaier-Picasso's lawyer Olivier Baratelli.
The thieves had made off with the 1961 Portrait of Jacqueline, depicting Picasso's second wife and Maya with Doll, a painting of the artist's daughter from 1938.
The stolen drawing was called Marie-Therese at age 21.
The paintings were on display in the apartment, in the chic Left Bank area of Paris, but security precautions had been taken to protect the works, according to family lawyers.
Maya with Doll is one of Picasso's classic oil paintings in bright shades of green, blue and red and depicting young Maya in pigtails holding a doll and a small wooden horse.
Maya was Ms Widmaier-Picasso's mother, born to Marie-Therese Walter, who was one of Picasso's many female companions.
Art dealers had agreed that the paintings were not sellable, given their masterpiece status, and were bound to reappear eventually.
Picasso's 1905 masterpiece Boy with a Pipe remains the most expensive painting ever sold since it was auctioned in New York for $US104.2 million ($121.51 million) in May 2004.
Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at his home in the southern French town of Mougins. He was 91.
THREE people in possession of three works by Pablo Picasso stolen from the Paris flat of the artist's granddaughter have been caught by French police.
The paintings were stolen as she lay sleeping in February.
Police surveillance teams arrested the three suspects this morning in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. They have been detained awaiting charges as inquiries continue.
The two paintings and a drawing by the Spanish master, worth more than €50 million ($80.5 million), were taken from the flat of Diana Widmaier-Picasso overnight on February 26.
"The works are apparently in good condition," said Ms Widmaier-Picasso's lawyer Olivier Baratelli.
The thieves had made off with the 1961 Portrait of Jacqueline, depicting Picasso's second wife and Maya with Doll, a painting of the artist's daughter from 1938.
The stolen drawing was called Marie-Therese at age 21.
The paintings were on display in the apartment, in the chic Left Bank area of Paris, but security precautions had been taken to protect the works, according to family lawyers.
Maya with Doll is one of Picasso's classic oil paintings in bright shades of green, blue and red and depicting young Maya in pigtails holding a doll and a small wooden horse.
Maya was Ms Widmaier-Picasso's mother, born to Marie-Therese Walter, who was one of Picasso's many female companions.
Art dealers had agreed that the paintings were not sellable, given their masterpiece status, and were bound to reappear eventually.
Picasso's 1905 masterpiece Boy with a Pipe remains the most expensive painting ever sold since it was auctioned in New York for $US104.2 million ($121.51 million) in May 2004.
Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at his home in the southern French town of Mougins. He was 91.
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