Pablo Picasso’s 1919 gouache painting Still Life with a Guitar (Naturaleza muerta con guitarra), which disappeared while being transported to an exhibition in Granada, has been safely recovered by Spanish police.
The small painting, valued at approximately €600,000, was being sent from Madrid to Granada to be displayed at the exhibition Bodegón: La eternidad de lo inerte (Still Life: The Eternity of the Inanimate), organized by CajaGranada Fundación. The work was one of 57 pieces scheduled for the show.
The loss was discovered during exhibition preparations. The artworks had been delivered by van on October 3 under video surveillance, but inconsistencies in package labeling prevented the curators from checking each item individually. When the packages were opened on October 6, the Picasso piece was found missing, and the disappearance was officially reported to the National Police on October 10.
Police Investigation
Spanish media reported that the transport vehicle had stopped overnight near Granada, guarded by two individuals taking shifts. Police launched a large-scale investigation, registering the work in Interpol’s international database of stolen art. Forensic teams eventually traced the painting back to the Madrid storage facility, where it was found intact and authenticated. Authorities now suspect the artwork may never have been loaded onto the transport truck in the first place.
The Spanish National Police confirmed the recovery on social media, writing:
“Recovered the missing Picasso painting during its transfer to an exhibition in Granada. It may never have been loaded onto the transport vehicle.”
A History of Stolen Picassos
Picasso’s works have been involved in several theft and loss cases over the decades. In 2012, Tête d’Arlequin was stolen from a museum in the Netherlands, while in 2019, the artist’s electrician and his wife were found to have hidden 271 of his works in their garage for over forty years.
The safe recovery of Still Life with a Guitar once again underscores the importance of rigorous packaging, documentation, and transport oversight in safeguarding high-value artworks.
