Valued at $20 million, it was authenticated in January by experts from the Centre Georges Pompidou museum – its previous home.
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Picasso’s “Head of a Young Woman” has returned to the Spanish capital after French police handed the painting found two weeks ago on a yacht in Corsica over to their counterparts in Spain.
The work is owned by Jaime Botín, Spanish billionaire heir and art collector who was planning to sell it elsewhere, but since it is considered a national treasure in the native country, it is not allowed to be sent overseas without government permission, according to reports. “It means a lot to everybody”.
The cubist painting was discovered in Newark on a cargo ship. Buyers typically demand the title to the pieces, which thieves don’t have.
“We are committed to extracting stolen cultural property from the grasp of the black market and restoring it to its rightful owners”, Kelly Currie, the US federal prosecutor for the eastern district of New York, said in a statement.
Pablo Picasso’s painting “La Coiffeusse” is seen at the French Embassy in Washington D.C., the United States, August 13, 2015.
“Picasso used to say, “A painting truly exists in the eyes of the beholder.’ Returning to the Musee National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, ‘La Coiffeuse” will come back to life and be seen again by the public”, Frederic Dore, deputy chief of mission at the French Embassy, said at the transfer. It was bound for a climate-controlled storage facility on Long Island.
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The painting’s recovery is notable, Wittman said.
