Picasso Work Vanishes En Route to Exhibition
74Oct. 22, 2025
A gouache-and-pencil work on paper by Picasso insured for $700,000 has gone missing in transit between Madrid and Granada. TitledNaturaleza muerta con guitarra(Still Life with Guitar), the roughly five-by-four-inch 1919 piece was one of fifty-seven works being transported to the CajaGranada Cultural Center to appear in the exhibition “Bodegón: La eternidad de lo inerte”(Still Life: The Eternity of the Inert), which opened there on October 9.
The works arrived at their destination via van at 10 a.m. on October 3 and were taken into the building in view of video cameras. According to the CajaGranada Foundation, the packages were incorrectly numbered, with the result that staff were unable to conduct “an exhaustive check” without opening all the packages. Instead, they confirmed provenance information for the works before signing off on the delivery about an hour and a half after it arrived. The packages were subsequently left untouched over the weekend, with video surveillance showing no intrusion.
On October 6, staff unpacked the works in preparation for the exhibition and set them out. In reviewing them, the foundation’s head of exhibitions and the show’s curator discovered that the Picasso work was not among them, and local police were contacted. Of note, the two-person crew charged with transporting the works stopped overnight less than twenty miles outside Granada, despite the drive between the Spanish capital and their destination being about four hours in duration. The pair are said to have taken turns guarding the works overnight; the missing work is not yet confirmed to have been placed in the delivery van, and no arrests have yet been made.
“We have . . . put ourselves at the disposal of those investigating, and we have complete faith that the case will be properly resolved,” said the foundation in a statement.