[MSN] Two men arrested for stealing Picasso masterpieces from the Paris flat of the artist's granddaughter, were on the verge of striking a deal to sell the works, police said on Wednesday.

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Picasso thieves were on verge of sale: police 
Posted on woensdag 8 augustus 2007 (EST) 
Two men arrested for stealing Picasso masterpieces from the Paris flat of
the artist's granddaughter, were on the verge of striking a deal to sell the
works, police said on Wednesday.  


Police chiefs hold up "Maya with Doll":
http://news.sawf.org/Entertainment/40963.aspx
 
C AFP Eric Fefferberg

PARIS (AFP) - Police surveillance teams arrested the suspected thieves and
would-be buyer, who has a criminal record for burglary, in the upmarket 16th
arrondissement of Paris on Tuesday morning. The trio were being held for
questioning. 

Two paintings and a drawing by the Spanish master Pablo Picasso, together
worth more than 50 million euros (66 million dollars), were taken from the
Left Bank apartment of Diana Widmaier-Picasso as she lay sleeping on
February 26. 

The thieves made off with the 1961 "Portrait of Jacqueline", depicting
Picasso's second wife and "Maya with Doll", a painting of the artist's
daughter from 1938. The stolen drawing was called "Marie-Therese at age 21".


The three suspects arrested Tuesday are thought to have been planning to
sell a collection of stolen works on the European art market. 

But art dealers believed that the Picasso paintings were not saleable, given
their masterpiece status. 

Officers recovered the paintings -- apparently in good condition -- after a
contact in the art world tipped off the OCBC, the French police unit dealing
in stolen art, police sources said. 

Together with the BRB, the elite police unit attached to the interior
ministry that deals with serious crime, they mounted a the surveillance
operation that led to the arrests. 

Anne Baldassari, director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, said she was
delighted at the news. 


"Portrait of Jacqueline": http://news.sawf.org/Entertainment/40963.aspx
 
C AFP Eric Fefferberg


"I am delighted for the family. I know that Diana and her mother have
suffered a lot." 

"Maya with Doll" is one of Picasso's classic oil paintings in bright shades
of green, blue and red and depicting young Maya in pigtails holding a doll
and a small wooden horse. 

Maya was Widmaier-Picasso's mother, who was the daughter of Picasso and
Marie-Therese Walter, one of Picasso's many female companions. 

According to one source close to the investigation, the paintings were not
insured because of the prohibitive sums demanded to cover such works. 

Picasso's 1905 masterpiece "Boy with a Pipe" remains the most expensive
painting ever sold since it went under the hammer at a New York auction for
104.2 million dollars in May 2004. 

Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at his home in the southern French town of
Mougins at the age of 91. 

CAFP