They find the lost Picasso package in Madrid and analyze if it is the authentic painting

The high-profile mystery of the missing Picasso painting, which disappeared while being transported to an exhibition in Granada, is closer to being solved. ... It seems that the work was found this Thursday, October 23, in Madrid, according to sources close to the investigation accessed by this media outlet. The Scientific Police are 99% sure that it is 'Still Life with Guitar,' insured for 600,000 euros, but it will be confirmed in the laboratory this Friday. Apparently, the external packaging, which consists of bubble wrap, appears to be the same, but the contents must be thoroughly analyzed. Although it may look like the painting at first glance, it could be, for example, a forgery.

As for the location of the discovery, it has not yet been disclosed. It could have been the property where its legitimate owner had it stored. There, a company was called to pack that and other paintings that the man had lent to the museum in Granada. It could also have been found in the warehouse where the same company later took the works, a room with video surveillance where they rested before traveling to Granada. The last mystery to be solved is who found it and gave the alert.

Now it's time to learn the background of the discovery, which occurred almost two weeks after the report by the CajaGranada Foundation, where the painting was to be exhibited, and a week after the news was revealed by IDEAL.

The investigation was conducted by the Historical Heritage Brigade of the General Commissariat of Judicial Police. From Granada, the Historical Heritage group also collaborated. All of them focused their efforts on taking statements and analyzing the security camera footage from the warehouse, the Granada museum, and the hostel in the Granada town of Deifontes, where the company transporting the works stopped for the night.

The Story of the Loss

The first date to keep in mind in this story is last September 25, when five technicians arrived at the owner's property in Madrid to pack and load the artworks into two vans, as IDEAL learned from sources close to the investigation. The process, which lasted an hour, was supervised by two exhibition commissioners, as well as by the owner and his niece.

They were then moved to the transport company's warehouse in Madrid, and stored in a room with strict security measures, such as video surveillance and a security alarm that, according to the workers, did not go off at any time. In this type of exhibitions, which feature works from various owners, they are usually collected in one place before being finally transported together, which in this case occurred exactly one week later, on Thursday, October 2. They were carrying a total of 57 works in the vehicle.

That day, they set off for Granada at about 4:00 PM, but the works did not reach their destination that day, as the same sources indicate. There was a stop in the town of Deifontes around 8:30 PM. The two company employees traveling to the Nasrid city spent the night at the Hostal el Nacimiento. They had booked in advance through the platform Booking.

"They were two strong men and wanted only one room. They had a very large van, I told them they could park it in a huge garage I have, but they preferred to leave it in the outdoor parking," explains the hostel owner, José Gutiérrez. According to his account, they had dinner and chatted with him for a while. "I wanted to invite them to a Cuba Libre, but they declined," he recalls. They went to sleep and he did not see them again until the next day, during breakfast. "They looked normal, who would think that they were carrying paintings worth several million euros?" he admits. According to the company's account, the two employees took turns sleeping in the van that night and also kept an eye on it during dinner and breakfast.

The business provided the National Police with security camera footage from October 2 and 3, when these employees passed through there.

Arrival in Granada

The next day, Friday, October 3, they headed to the CajaGranada Foundation. There, the material was unloaded in the presence of members of this body, who noticed that the packaging was not correctly numbered. The missing Picasso had been assigned number 15. The head of exhibitions signed for the delivery and concluded the job, although a count of the paintings was not performed at that time.

The works were stored that weekend in a space of the foundation monitored by cameras. It was the following Monday, October 6, when museum employees proceeded to unpack. When hanging them, they noticed that a small painting by Pablo Picasso from 1919 called 'Still Life with Guitar,' painted in gouache and lead pencil on paper, was missing. Its insured value is approximately 600,000 euros. The CajaGranada Foundation filed a report with the National Police on October 10.