Picasso Painting Recovered Weeks After Disappearance

Spanish authorities have recovered a Pablo Picasso painting, insured for €600,000 ($700,000), which disappeared while being transported from Madrid to an exhibition in Granada, southern Spain, according to news.artnet.

The gouache and pencil painting "Still Life with a Guitar" (1919) was supposed to be included among more than 50 artworks in a new exhibition by the Caja Granada Foundation, "Still Life: The Eternity of Stillness."

The 5-by-4-inch painting, owned by a private collector, playfully depicts the view from Picasso's Parisian apartment. It was purchased for €60,000 ($76,000 at the time) from the Joron-Derem auction house in Paris in 2009, according to the Artnet price database.

It was supposed to be delivered by truck to the Caja Granada Foundation on October 3 as part of a shipment of loaned exhibits, but it never arrived. In a post on X, Spanish police referred to the recovery operation, stating that the painting "probably did not reach the transport truck."

They added that the Historical Heritage Brigade would keep the investigation open after conducting a forensic analysis of the work.