Two stolen Picasso's recovered
October 11 2011
Picture: Das Bild
After the sad news of yesterday, some better news now from Germany: two Picassos stolen in February 2008 have been recovered.
Tete de Cheval, 1962 (above), and Verre et Pichet, 1944, belong to the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, but were stolen while on loan in Switzerland. The pictures were found in Serbia, which now seems to be the art theft capital of Europe. Das Bild believes that Dick Ellis, formerly of Scotland Yard, was involved in tracking the pictures down.
As ever, it is thought that the pictures were stolen in the hope that a ransom would be paid. The director of the Sprengel Museum, Ulrich Krempel, said:
Often, criminals try to extort a ransom to the insurance or use images as collateral in drug deals.
The sad truth is that as long as museums carry on paying ransoms (or 'fees for information' as the Tate calls them), these thefts will continue.
