[MSN] At least two Picasso paintings, worth a total of nearly $66 million, were stolen from the artist's granddaughter's house in Paris, police said Wednesday.

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Picasso Works Stolen From Granddaughter
By JEAN-PIERRE VERGES, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

(02-28) 04:42 PST PARIS, France (AP) -- 

At least two Picasso paintings, worth a total of nearly $66 million, were
stolen from the artist's granddaughter's house in Paris, police said
Wednesday.

The paintings, "Maya and the Doll" and "Portrait of Jacqueline," disappeared
overnight Monday to Tuesday from the chic 7th arrondissement, or district, a
Paris police official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak to the media, said they were worth nearly $66 million,
and that there were signs of breaking and entering in the house.
Though police only mentioned the two paintings, the director of the Picasso
Museum, Anne Baldassari, said several paintings and drawings were stolen
from the home of Diana Widmaier-Picasso.
"It was a very large theft," she said, without giving details.

"Maya and the Doll" is a colorful portrait of a young blonde girl in
pigtails, eyes askew in a Cubist perspective. Another version of the
painting hangs in the Picasso Museum. It portrays Maya Widmaier, the
daughter of Picasso and Marie-Therese Walter, his companion from 1924-1944.
Maya married Pierre Widmaier had three children, Olivier, Richard and Diana
Widmaier-Picasso, an art historian and author of a book called "Art Can Only
be Erotic."

No other details of the theft were immediately available.

The Art Loss Register, which maintains the world's largest database on
stolen, missing and looted art, currently lists 444 missing Picasso pieces,
including paintings, lithographs, drawings and ceramics.
Among recent missing Picassos reported to the register was the theft of an
abstract watercolor stolen in Mexico, said staff member Antonia Kimbell.
The number of missing Picassos is so high simply because Picasso was so
prolific, Kimbell said. She said the Paris theft was "definitely quite
significant."

"Anything of particularly good quality, with the provenance of his
granddaughter, would reach considerable value on the open market," Kimbell
said.

But major pieces, when stolen, usually sell for a pittance, if at all, on
the black market because potential buyers are afraid to touch them.

"It's unlikely a legitimate dealer would purchase or acquire any of these
pieces," Kimbell said.

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