For nine years, the works of the world-famous artists Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso went missing. The Greek police were able to arrest the perpetrator and recover the works.
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On Monday, police were able to arrest a 49-year-old man from Ketarea, who confessed to the theft. He led the police to a forest not far from Athens, where he had hidden the paintings in plastic bags.
Why he has confessed now, nine years later, is not yet clear. The theft caused a stir in 2012, when they were stolen. At the time, it only took 7 minutes to steal Mondrian’s Mill (1905) and Picasso’s Woman’s Head (1939) from the National Art Gallery in Athens, the largest museum in the Greek capital. Several security cameras were broken, the security staff understaffed.
Picasso himself had donated the work to the Greeks to celebrate their resistance to the Nazis during WWII. On the back was an inscription by Picasso to the Greek people. It also made the work difficult to sell on the black market, and extra valuable to the Greeks, said Culture Minister Lina Mendoni. It was estimated at 16.5 million euros.
A sketch by Italian artist Guglielmo Caccia was also stolen during the break-in. That work has not been found. According to the arrested man, it was destroyed. It is currently unknown whether the man had any accomplices.
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