They were looking for drugs and found a painting attributed to Pablo Picasso

They were looking for drugs and found a painting attributed to Pablo Picasso

The work of art, allegedly stolen, it was discovered on Saturday in that central-eastern province of Iraq and three suspects were arrested on charges of being involved in the trade and transportation of narcotics, according to the General Directorate for the Fight against Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of the country’s Interior Ministry. , according to the Iraqi state agency INA.

“The drug trafficking it is linked to many crimes, including murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape, gang formation, corruption and family disintegration, right up to the antiquities trade,” Sobhi said.

The operation that led to the discovery of the painting is part of the security operations carried out by the ministry and began last July.

However, authorities did not provide details about the painting, its ownership history and the mechanism by which the work will be authenticated, CNN reported.

The Spanish painter and sculptor, who died in 1973, was the author of an extensive artistic creation that includes 13,500 paintings and around 100,000 engravings. He created hundreds of sculptures and ceramics and some 34,000 illustrations.

Last year, Picasso’s painting “Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée” was one of three works of art recovered by Greek police nearly a decade after they were stolen from a museum.

In 2019, a Dutch art detective recovered the artist’s $28 million “Portrait of Dora Maar,” 20 years after it was stolen from a Saudi sheikh’s yacht off the southern coast of France.

In May, a portrait of Picasso’s mistress and mother of one of his children, titled “Reclining Nude Woman,” sold at auction for $67.5 million.

Source: Ambito

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