Picasso painting seized in Turkey dismissed as fake

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

AFP Photo

A painting seized by Turkish authorities that was reported to be a stolen Picasso is a fake, the Picasso Administration, charged with managing the artist’s estate, said on Feb. 1.

The organization said the canvas is a copy of a 1940 work by the great Spanish artist, “Woman Dressing Her Hair,” and the original is in the hands of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

MoMA confirmed that the original, a portrait of Pablo Picasso’s lover and muse Dora Maar, was part of its collection.

The painting seized in Turkey is most certainly “a copy,” the Paris-based Picasso Administration said.

Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency had reported Jan. 30 that police had recovered the original “Woman Dressing Her Hair” and that it had been stolen from a collector in New York.

It was seized in an undercover operation in Istanbul targeting alleged art thieves who were attempting to sell it for $7 million.

Turkish police, posing as potential buyers, met the prospective sellers at a hotel and then at a yacht in an Istanbul marina, the report said.

Dora Maar, Picasso’s longtime muse, is depicted in the painting in grotesque fashion, with a sunken ribcage, swollen stomach and enormous feet.