Paris Drug Bust Nets Pilfered Picasso Worth Up to $17 Million
3June 23, 2026
Police conducting whatThe Telegraphdescribed as a “routine narcotics raid” at a suburban Paris home discovered a painting byPablo Picassothat had been stolen from its Singapore-based owner,Artnet Newsreports. Valued at up to $17 million, the painting has not yet been publicly identified but is reported by French newspaperLe Parisiento have been authenticated as belonging to a 1937 series of portraits the artist made of his French model and lover Marie-Thérèse Walter.
The painting was discovered in the home of the aunt of a suspected drug dealer and was part of a sweep of several houses in the area that pulled in thirty-seven pounds of marijuana, $229,000 worth of designer clothing, and $8,000 in cash. Six people were arrested in the operation, among them a thirty-seven-year-old man who worked as a security guard at a firm specializing in art storage.Le Parisienreported that the man admitted to taking the painting but told authorities he did so because he was “seeking to demonstrate security flaws within the company.” Two of the initial suspects were released; the security guard and three of his compatriots are expected to stand trial in August.
Walter became Picasso’s model and lover in 1927, while he was still married to his first wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, with whom he had a young son. The Spanish master separated from Khokhlova in 1935, the same year his daughter with Walter, Maya, was born. The relationship ended around 1940, and Walter committed suicide in 1977, four years after Picasso’s death.