Dutch Art Detective Arthur Brand says he’s uncovered a highly valuable Picasso portrait, stolen from the yacht of a Saudi Sheikh in 1999.
The 1938 painting titled ‘Buste de Femme’ depicts Pablo Picasso’s lover of seven years Dora Maar and is believed to be worth around $39 million.
In 1999, the portrait was stolen from the boat of billionaire Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh while it was anchored in the town of Antibes on the French Riviera.
The artwork’s disappearance baffled French police and it was believed lost.
But now Brand says the portrait was being passed around the Dutch black market, before being delivered to him 10 days ago by its current owner.
It has since been verified and is in the hands of an unnamed insurance company.
Brand says he first heard rumours that a "Picasso stolen from a ship" was being moved around the Dutch underworld in 2015.
The Stolen Picasso was passed around in the Dutch underworld. Source: Tetteroo
He told AFP the Picasso was “often being used as collateral, popping up in a drug deal here, four years later in an arms deal there.”
"Since the original theft, the painting must have changed hands at least 10 times.”
Brand took several years to verify whether the painting was indeed the stolen ‘Buste de Femme’ and then put out appeals to those who may have inadvertently bought the stolen artwork.
The current owners of the painting contacted him in March and the Picasso was delivered to his apartment in the last two weeks.
Dutch and French Police have closed the case and will not prosecute the current owner.
‘The Indiana Jones of the Art World’
Arthur Brand primarily works as an art historian, but he has developed a reputation as a renowned art crime investigator.
In 2015 he garnered international attention when he helped German police find two bronze horse statues by Josef Thorak which once stood outside the office of Adolf Hitler and were believed to be destroyed in the Battle of Berlin.
Posing as an American collector, he helped authorities carry out a series of raids which uncovered the statues and a wider collection of lost Nazi Art.
In 2016 Brand uncovered two artworks stolen from a Dutch Museum. He spent nine months negotiating with two criminal gangs to secure the return of the pieces valued at $12 million.
Last year he tracked down a 6th century Byzantine mosaic of Saint Mark, which had been stolen from a church in Cyrpus during the Turkish invasion in 1974.
Brand uncovered the 1600 year old artwork in the possession of a British family who had bought the mosaic over four decades ago.
Additional reporting - AFP, AP
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