Stolen Picasso, Chagall found in basement after 14 years

ANTWERP

Two paintings by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall stolen 14 years ago have been recovered by police during a search of a basement in Antwerp, ARTnews reported on Jan. 18.

The works - Picasso’s portrait “Tête” (1971) and Chagall’s “L’homme en prière” (1970), depicting a man praying - were taken from the home of an art collector in Tel Aviv in 2010. At the time of the theft the works were collectively valued at nearly $1 million, local authorities said in a statement on Jan 16. Both paintings were found in good condition.

Some $680,000 worth of jewelry was also stolen from the collector in the same heist, however the trove remains missing. Authorities were tipped off from a source that a Belgian citizen in Namur, the capital city of the Walloon region, was offering the paintings for sale.

An investigation was launched against the suspect, a 68-year-old Israeli watch dealer, who was tracked to a residence in Namur. A search of his residence, however, uncovered a large sum of money, but not the long-lost works.

“The checks and police resources implemented during 2023 made it possible to establish that the suspect was indeed in possession of the works sought and that he could have them at his home or at the home of one of his relations,” Belgian authorities said in the statement.

“Although confessing to possessing the paintings, the suspect refused to communicate where he had stored them,” the statement added. The investigation eventually led them to the Antwerp residence, where they found the paintings unharmed and still in their original frames.