NEW YORK: Authorities say a Pablo Picasso painting worth millions of dollars was stolen in France and smuggled into the US by someone who falsely labeled it as an “art craft” worth about US$37 when it was shipped.
US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch filed a civil forfeiture complaint over the 1911 cubist painting, called “The Hairdresser.”
Authorities say the 1911 painting disappeared from a storeroom at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. It was reported stolen in November 2001.
The painting’s location remained unknown until it arrived in the United States in December 2014. Lynch says the shipping label described the contents as an “art craft/toy.”
There’s no information on whether anyone has been arrested in connection to the shipment.--AP