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‘Still life with guitar’ (montagem)
Still life with guitar disappeared during a 400-kilometer trip. Investigation is ongoing and so far there have been no arrests.
A frame of Pablo Picasso valued at 600,000 euros, it disappeared in transport between the owner’s house, in Madrid, and the site of an exhibition in Granada, the Spanish police and the CajaGranada Foundation confirmed this Thursday.
The disappearance of “Still life with guitar” (“Still Life with Guitar”), a 1919 work by the Spanish Pablo Picasso, measuring just 12.7 cm high and 9.8 cm wide, was reported to the Spanish national police on October 10th by the CajaGranada Foundation.
The institution has now explained in a statement that a company specialized in transporting works of art delivered it to it on October 3, at the CajaGranada Cultural Center, more than fifty paintings with different origins taken from Madrid to be integrated into the exhibition “Still life. The eternity of the inert”.
What is known
According to the same statement, the works delivered were deposited in a space at the foundation, with permanent video surveillanceuntil October 6th, when they were unpacked and those responsible for the institution and the exhibition found that a frame was missing“Nature morte à la guitarre”, despite appearing on the transport guides.
Upon arriving at the foundation, the works were removed from the van that transported them and placed on a freight elevator, from where they were removed, on another floor, in a space with video surveillance, and then deposited in the room where they remained until they were unpacked, where there are also cameras permanently, said CajaGranada.
The foundation revealed that “not all packages were properly numbered” upon arrival and therefore “Unable to perform a check exhaustive without unpacking”, so the transport notes were signed “pending unpacking on Monday”, October 6th.
Sources investigating the case cited by several local media outlets revealed this Thursday that the journey of around 400 km between Madrid and Granada, in the south of Spain, to transport the 57 works took two days to conclude, this being one of the aspects on which the research is focusing.
The paintings were transported in a van in which two people followed. After leaving Madrid, they stopped about 27 km from their destination, where they slept, in a small hotel, with the two people, allegedly, take turns to watch the van, said police sources cited by the Spanish press.
As road trips To transport works of art, they must comply with various packaging rules and require slow driving speeds, so as not to damage the pieces, as recalled by some experts in this type of transport also cited by the Spanish press this Thursday.
‘Still life with guitar’, 1919, by Pablo Picasso.
The painting was already worth 10 times more than it cost
The identity of the owner of “Nature morte à la guitare” has not yet been revealed.
It is only known that he is a private collector who acquired the Picasso painting a few years ago for 60,000 euros and that he kept it in a residence in Madrid, from where it was taken on September 25th, by a company specialized in transporting works of art, with the aim of being included in the Granada exhibition.
According to the CajaGranada Foundation, the work has now been valued for insurance purposes at a value of 600 thousand euros.
The exhibition “Still Life. The Eternity of the Inert” was opened by the CajaGranada Cultural Center as planned, on October 9th, and includes works by Juan Gris, María Blanchard, René Magritte and Fernando Botero, among others, who traveled in the van that left Madrid on October 2nd towards Granada and which allegedly also carried Picasso’s missing painting.
Spanish police said the investigation is ongoing and that so far there have been no arrests.
