The painting Still life with guitar Pablo Picasso, missing since October 3 and now recovered, did not even leave the building from where he was going to be loaded to be exhibited in Granada. The carriers forgot it in the doorway and a neighbor took it home thinking it was an order package.
Sources close to the investigation have told EFE the bizarre story of the alleged theft of a small painting by the Malaga painter, insured at 600,000 euros and that it was going to be part of the exhibition Bodegon that the CajaGranada cultural center was going to inaugurate on October 6.
A transport company had to pick it up from a building on Avenida Pío XII in Madrid, along with other works of art, and move them all to a warehouse, from where they would leave the next day for Granada.
Still life with guitar It was forgotten in the portal. And alone. But for a short time, because a neighbor of the property saw the package and thinking that it was an order, she took it home.
But the woman did not open it and left it cornered in the house. Days passed and Picasso was still forgotten.
Until this neighbor’s husband told her about the news that all the media were already reporting: a Picasso painting had not arrived at its destination. They had missed it in Granada when they unloaded the other 56 that were part of the exhibition.
The woman then realized. Could that package be the missing painting? Indeed that was the case and The couple called the police.
In all likelihood, the couple knew that there were works of art in some of their homes.
By then, the Police had already initiated an investigation after CajaGranada reported the disappearance – it was filed on the 10th – and had already taken statements from anyone who had had contact with the painting: transporters, warehouse employees, etc…
Today, the Scientific Police have opened the package and verified that the painting was the authentic one, a Picasso that has shocked researchers, owners, exhibitors and some workers who, surely, have come to feel suspicious of a robbery that never existed.