Moncton Forum

Picasso paintings stolen from his granddaughter’s house

 

By Jean-Pierre Verges
PARIS (AP) — At least two Picasso paintings, worth a total of nearly $66 million, were stolen from the artist’s granddaughter’s house in Paris, police said Wednesday.
The paintings, “Maya and the Doll” and “Portrait of Jacqueline,” disappeared overnight Monday to Tuesday from the chic 7th arrondissement, or district, a Paris police official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said they were worth nearly $66 million, and that there were signs of breaking and entering in the house.
Though police only mentioned the two paintings, the director of the Picasso Museum, Anne Baldassari, said several paintings and drawings were stolen from the home of Diana Widmaier-Picasso.
“It was a very large theft,” she said, without giving details.
“Maya and the Doll” is a colourful portrait of a young blond girl in pigtails, eyes askew in a Cubist perspective. Another version of the painting hangs in the Picasso Museum. It portrays Maya Widmaier, the daughter of Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter, his companion from 1924-1944.
Maya married Pierre Widmaier had three children, Olivier, Richard and Diana Widmaier-Picasso, an art historian and author of a book called “Art Can Only be Erotic.”
No other details of the theft were immediately available.
The Art Loss Register, which maintains the world’s largest database on stolen, missing and looted art, currently lists 444 missing Picasso pieces, including paintings, lithographs, drawings and ceramics.
Among recent missing Picassos reported to the register was the theft of an abstract watercolour stolen in Mexico, said staff member Antonia Kimbell.
The number of missing Picassos is so high simply because Picasso was so prolific, Kimbell said. She said the Paris theft was “definitely quite significant.”
“Anything of particularly good quality, with the provenance of his granddaughter, would reach considerable value on the open market,” Kimbell said.
But major pieces, when stolen, usually sell for a pittance, if at all, on the black market because potential buyers are afraid to touch them.
“It’s unlikely a legitimate dealer would purchase or acquire any of these pieces,” Kimbell said.

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"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
- Albert Einstein -

Stealing, like art itself, is an art. Stealing art is one of the highest of the stealing arts. Books are written and films are made honouring this tradition. To have one's work stolen is a compliment and can be a big career move. Try to get your stuff and might become famous.

I guess if you are going to steal art, steal the good stuff. Don't go WalMart and try to steal art, they have no art. I read some articles that suggest that a painting needs to be properly stolen in order for it to become an icon and irresistibly desirable to a wider public.

Further, as most of the thieves are men,(proven) the stealing of female imagery takes the psychoanalyst into some sticky stuff. Lets face it, an image is a human-capturing device. Apparently thieves as well as artists know this. But maybe some moneyed connoisseur knows it too, and is privately slavering over Madonna and Scream along with a Schnapps and a good cigar in a paneled inner sanctum. Meanwhile the clever thiefs are blowing the cash fronm his heist in a bar. If I may conclude that no one does the big jobs for the money its for the fame too. 

Bye I am on my way out to steal some art.

 

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"I think we have done this before and we shall do it again. The players may be different but the rules of game remains the same".