Teenagers steal Picasso painting, leave it in park

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Femme au Chignon.

A Pablo Picasso lithograph worth an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 was discovered leaning against a park fence in Northern California, two weeks after it was reportedly stolen by a group of teenagers, daily Oakland Tribune reported.

The daily reported that the lithograph, “Femme au Chignon” (woman with bun), went missing from the Novato, Calif., mansion of imprisoned former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, authorities said.
The stolen lithograph was reported missing after 100 teenagers held an unauthorized party on the property, Novato police Sgt. Eric Riddell said.

“It appears the unknown suspect(s), placed the painting there and intended it to be found,” Riddell said.

Greg Atamaniuk was walking nearby when he spotted the lithograph leaning against a fence. “It’s something that you don’t find usually on your morning hikes,” he said.

It is one in a series of 50 prints from 1957 and was valued between $30,000 and $40,000 according to a 2008 Sotheby’s auction.

“All I did was walk around a little bit, look at it, sit down and just study it for a while and just said, ‘This can’t be real; this isn’t really happening, this is not really here,’” Atamaniuk said.

Police said that the lithograph would be returned to Lazarenko’s estate after their investigation is completed. Lazarenko, who is still wanted in the Ukraine on connection with embezzlement and murder charges, is set to be released from a California prison in November.