Small But Prized Picasso Painting Disappears on Trip from Madrid Museum

A small painting by Pablo Picasso — which measures just five by four inches but is worth nearly three-quarters of a million dollars — remains missing after disappearing earlier this month while in transit from a Madrid museum. The piece was part of artworks collected from private collectors and intended to be exhibited "Still Life: The Eternity of the Inanimate" at a museum in Granada, about 260 miles south of the country's capital, according to media reports. A van carrying dozens of these paintings, including Picasso's work, arrived at the CajaGranada Cultural Center after a four-hour journey on Friday, October 3. But when museum staff opened the crates the following Monday, the Picasso work was nowhere to be found. The small painting depicts an abstract interior scene of a guitar placed on a table and is titled Still life with guitar. The painting is insured for $700,000, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The CajaGranada Foundation has contacted the Spanish National Police, who are currently investigating. Security cameras showed nothing suspicious happened over the weekend before the artwork was unpacked, according to the foundation. “An investigation is currently underway and is trying to determine when and where the painting disappeared,” Granada police said in a statement. The Granada National Police has also been added to the international stolen art database. The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) seen in front of one of his paintings, around 1955, at his home in Cannes. (George Stroud/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty) According to detectives, the transport van left Madrid on the afternoon of October 2 but made an unscheduled overnight stop in the small town of Deifontes, a few miles from Granada, according to an ABC News report. That stop is now the focus of the investigation after both drivers told police they took turns sleeping in or near the van to watch over the precious cargo. “It’s crazy,” Arthur Brand, one of Europe’s best-known art detectives, told ABC. "If you move a work of art of such value, you don't stop overnight after four hours. You deliver it immediately. To do otherwise is extremely suspicious." Brand, who has worked on many major theft cases, also told the network that insider involvement could be at play. “In many art thefts there are insiders, people who tip off the criminals or are part of the plan,” he said. “Someone with in-depth knowledge of timing or security can make things a lot easier.” The art detective also told the network he was optimistic the heist would be solved. “Spain has some of the best art crime investigators in the world,” he said. "If anyone can find this painting, they can - and if they don't, I will. One way or another, it will be found." Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the bestselling author of Below the line and nine other mystery novels and non-fiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more