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New blue period for Picasso family

Two of the master's most personal paintings are stolen from his granddaughter's home.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 1, 2007

PARIS - In a stealthy overnight heist, burglars slipped into the Paris apartment of Pablo Picasso's granddaughter and spirited away two portraits of women the artist loved.

The thieves were so quiet that the two people in Diana Widmaier-Picasso's apartment at the time didn't hear them make off with the art treasures, police said. The burglars left few clues, and police said they were not sure how the intruders gained entry.

The two paintings - one of Picasso's daughter Maya, the other of his second wife, Jacqueline - together are worth an estimated $66-million.

The paintings join 549 missing or stolen works by the prolific Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist and ceramist, considered by many the leading artist of the 20th century. The Web site of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art says Picasso produced more than 20,000 works of art during his long career.

Picasso family lawyer Celine Astolfe said Widmaier-Picasso and her mother, Maya, the daughter of Picasso's longtime mistress Marie-Therese Walter, were asleep in the house when the theft occurred.

"They heard a noise, went downstairs and saw nothing," Astolfe said. "They went to bed and the following morning they saw that two paintings were missing."

The lawyer said the theft appeared to be by professionals because the home's alarms were neutralized and there were no signs of a break-in.

Although the paintings formed part of the Picasso family's private collection, they are nonetheless well known and, art experts said, would be difficult to sell on the open market.

Any work by Picasso is "very hard to fence because it's so well-known - stealing a Picasso is like stealing a sign that says, 'I'm a thief,' " said Jonathan Sazonoff, who runs a leading Web site on stolen art.

Katie Dugdale of the Art Loss Register, which maintains the world's largest database on stolen, missing and looted art, said that although it's difficult, famous artworks can be sold on the black market.

"Even though they can't get full value, there's still some value, unfortunately," she said, particularly if the artworks are used to fund other illegal activities, like arms trading.

In high-profile cases like the theft of the Picassos in Paris, recovery is likely because of intense media attention and ramped-up police efforts.

Investigators said Wednesday they were struggling to piece together what happened.

Burglars entered the apartment on the Left Bank late Monday or early Tuesday, police and the prosecutor's office said. Police said they were examining a door lock to see if it was broken, and were unsure if the alarm system had been on.

Once inside the apartment, the thieves cut the edges of one painting, Maya and the Doll, to take it from its frame, a police official said.

The painting has sentimental value for Widmaier-Picasso: It shows her mother, Maya, as a young girl in pigtails, eyes askew in an off-kilter Cubist perspective.

The other missing painting is Portrait of Jacqueline, and the burglars took the frame with it, police said. The painting was one of many that depict Picasso's second wife, Jacqueline Roque, whom he married in 1961 when he was 79 and she was in her mid 30s.

The stolen paintings are important because the artist chose to keep them, said Pepe Karmel, an associate professor at New York University and the author of Picasso and the Invention of Cubism.

"They were meaningful to him, so he didn't sell them," Karmel said.

[Last modified March 1, 2007, 01:11:42]