Missing Picasso painting found in Madrid weeks after vanishing

MADRID: Spanish police said on Friday they had recovered a 1919 Pablo Picasso painting that went missing earlier this month ahead of its planned display at a temporary exhibition in southern Spain.

The small framed “Still Life with Guitar” was part of a larger shipment of artworks moved from Madrid to Granada. The exhibit’s organisers filed a police complaint on October 10 once they noticed it missing after the 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 pictures of forensic experts examining the painting while wearing full sterile bodysuits and masks.

The police had registered the painting, which is owned by a private collector, in Interpol’s global database of Stolen Works of Art containing nearly 57,000 items.

The CajaGranada Foundation holding the exhibition said its security camera footage showed only 57 works being unloaded from the vehicle when it arrived, instead of the 58 expected.