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Stolen Picasso Tete De Femme Painting

Story Of The Stolen Picasso Tete De Femme Artwork

Was it Mr. Green in the foyer with the candle stick? Perhaps, it was Professor Plum with the oven mitt in the study? Or maybe it could have been Colonel Mustard with the ketchup bottle in the underground speakeasy? Whoever did it, the point is, someone has stolen a valuable piece of work straight off the wall of a San Francisco gallery.

Famed Cubist painter, Pablo Picasso, was wronged this week when an unknown cat-burglar stole one of his famous drawings from the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco, CA. The mystery-man walked into this prestigious gallery which houses the works of some of the world’s greatest artists, Dali, Chagall, and of course, Señor Picasso, lifted the drawing off the gallery wall with his grubby little fingers, and ducked out in his getaway cab. The drawing, “Tete de Femme”, disappeared into the windy streets of the Cable Car capital of the country.

“Tete de Femme” is said to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and was so easily picked from the Weinstein Gallery’s garden of wall space. The assailant can only be described as a “man in his 30’s wearing loafers and dark sunglasses”. I don’t know about you, but in my time working for galleries, I’m led to believe that there has to be some serious conspiring going down.

Stolen Picasso Tete De Femme Artwork - Nazmiyal
Stolen Picasso Tete De Femme Artwork

Let’s be serious this isn’t the Thomas Crown Affair or Entrapment. Sean Connery is not going to put someone doubling as Catherine Zeta Jones in a cat suit to go through a jungle jim of lasers and trigger switches.

There is absolutely no way that a Picasso housed in a major gallery in a populous metropolitan part of town could be snatched from the wall without surveillance cameras, eye-witnesses, or taxi-cab confessions. Picasso, himself, would have a whole new meaning to “blue period” if he only knew what has become of his precious drawing.

Pablo Picasso Painting Weeping Woman With Handkerchief - Nazmiyal
Pablo Picasso Painting Weeping Woman With Handkerchief

All I’m saying is this piece is missing, and it is a complete and utter injustice to the Art World. Perhaps, we should get Inspector Clouseau on the case. By the looks of it, I’m sure he would have found the Pink Panther Picasso before authorities. This puppy could not have gone far and will be impossible to sell on the black market for its actual worth. Keep your eyes peeled, your whiskers trimmed, and give ’em your best Charlie’s Angels pose.

Who Stole Picasso’s Tete De Femme?

Mark Lugo gained notoriety in 2011 when he was arrested for stealing a Picasso drawing titled “Tête de Femme” from a gallery in San Francisco. Lugo, at the time, was working as a wine steward or sommelier at the famed New York restaurant Per Se. The stolen Picasso was valued at around $200,000.

Lugo’s arrest drew attention not only for the audacity of the theft but also because it was revealed that he had stolen several other artworks from different galleries and hotels. He was ultimately charged with multiple counts of theft, and in 2012, he pleaded guilty to stealing the Picasso and other artworks.

The the stolen Picasso work “Tete De Femme” was thankfully recovered!

More about stolen artworks of Picasso

Certainly, “Tete de Femme” is not the inaugural Picasso drawing to fall victim to theft. In 1969, a collection of sketches by Pablo Picasso, along with works by British sculptor Henry Moore, were stolen from a traveling art exhibit organized by the University of Michigan. Valued at $200,000, these pieces were later recovered from a California auction house, with no arrests made.

Fast forward to February 24th, 2006, when “The Dance” by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso disappeared from the Museu da Chacara do Ceu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The thieves took advantage of a passing carnival parade, making a swift exit into the crowd. This heist also included works by Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, and Claude Monet, but unfortunately, none of these paintings have been recovered to date.

On June 12th of the same year, three armed men broke into the Pinacoteca do Estado Museum in Sao Paulo, stealing Picasso’s “Minotaur, Drinker and Women.”

Another elusive Picasso masterpiece is “The Pigeon with Green Peas,” pilfered from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris on May 20th of the previous year. Alongside five other stolen paintings, the loot is estimated to be worth around $123 million.

Even Spain, Picasso’s homeland, was not spared from art theft. In March 2010, several paintings by Picasso, Fernando Botero, Antoni Tapies, and Julio Gonzalez were stolen during transport from a warehouse in Getafe. Surveillance cameras captured images of three masked men hijacking the truck.

Surprisingly, Picasso himself was implicated in an art theft. Two volumes published in the United States in 2009 reconstruct one of the most daring art heists of the 20th century: the theft of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. During the investigation, which spanned several years, Pablo Picasso was summoned for questioning by French police. In the morning of August 21, 1911, when the Mona Lisa disappeared from the Salon Carré museum, the French police initiated a controversial investigation.

Picasso’s friend, Guillaume Apollinaire, was initially suspected of involvement and arrested. Apollinaire tried to implicate Picasso, claiming he bought two statues stolen with the Gioconda. Picasso, then on the brink of his ascent into bourgeois life in Belle Epoque Paris, admitted to buying the stolen statues but insisted he was unaware of their origin. Eventually, both Picasso and Apollinaire were cleared of charges, and the real thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was apprehended two years later.

This art blog post about the stolen Picasso was published by Nazmiyal Rugs Located in the Heart of Manhattan New York City, NY.