The Head of Harlequin Picasso is one of the seven paintings stolen there are more than six years in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam, during a spectacular burglary qualified by the media of the netherlands of the “theft of the century”. Estimated to total ten-eight million euros, these paintings, among which were also two Monets, a Gauguin and a Matisse, are still not found.
The Romanian prosecution in charge of organized crime (DIICOT) said Saturday that a canvas that can be The Head of Harlequin by Pablo Picasso, estimated to be about 800,000 euro, “was found Saturday night in the department of Tulcea”. The work, which is being authenticated has been brought to the embassy of the netherlands in Bucharest by two Dutch nationals who say they’ve been in this town in the south-east of Romania, says the prosecutor.
“4 Romanians were convicted in the 2012 heist of Picasso’s “Tete d’arlequin” &..other..paintings from.. Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam
One..told investigators she burned the paintings..to protect her son, the alleged leader of the thefts. She later retracted the statement” pic.twitter.com/KVg4KtLfZM d (@dougalpollux) November 18, 2018
experts have expressly doubted whether the canvas fly. “I have serious doubts on the authenticity”, said Peter van Beveren, former curator of the Collection of Triton, on OUR. “The work may of course be completely moldy and vandalized. But even in this case, there are too many abnormalities. The lines, the colors, the details didn’t stick. On the basis of what I see, I think this is a fake”, he added, after seeing a photo of the table found.
” READ ALSO – The youth flaming Picasso at the Musée d’orsay
A mysterious message sent to a writer, Dutch to Romanian, Mira Feticu, the author of a novel about the burglary, has revived the hope to trace at least a part of these paintings. There are a dozen of days, “I received a letter in Romanian with instructions for the place where was hidden the table” by Picasso, leading to a forest of the eastern part of Romania, explained to the AFP Mrs. Feticu.
A mysterious anonymous note
The hope was of short duration. Sunday evening, Mira Feticu explained on Dutch television have been the victim of an artistic performance of two stage directors, belgian, Yves Degryse and Bart Baele, launched Thursday in Antwerp, Belgium.
According to OUR information, the writer claims to have received an email from the belgian duo, explaining to him that the mysterious message was part of a project devoted to the Dutch painter Geert Jan Jansen, whose fake paintings of great masters have full collections of Europe and beyond until the 1990s.
” READ ALSO – The art thieves in Rotterdam filmed
“A part of this performance”, which revolves around the life of a forger, “was prepared in silence in the course of the last few months, in the idea of reducing Head of Harlequin of Picasso,” write the directors on their web site. Their theatre company, Berlin, “wishes to refrain from comment for the moment”, before talking to Ms. Feticu, they write.
Interviewed by the AFP, the deputy chief of DIICOT, has, however, responded that there was no element to determine whether it is a hoax. The prosecutor Romanian had said it wanted to “check the progress” of the investigation Monday.
Three works burned
Six people, including the main suspect, Radu Dogaru, have been sentenced in 2014 for flights in the museum of Rotterdam to terms of imprisonment of two to six years in prison and to pay 18.1 million euros in damages to the insurers. Olga Dogaru, mother of Radu Dogaru, had said during the investigation to have burned the paintings to destroy evidence against his son, before retracting.
after his testimony, the specialists of the national history Museum of Romania had analyzed the ash found in the wood-burning stove in his bathroom, Carcaliu (is), and concluded that they contained the remains of at least three oil paintings.
” READ ALSO – Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and the six thieves
The museum was based on the discovery of pigments blue, yellow, red, and green lead-based and zinc which are no longer currently used, according to the museum’s director, Ernest Oberländer-Tarnoveanu.
The thieves had put less than three minutes, in the night from 15 to 16 October 2012, to steal the Head of Harlequin Picasso’s The Reader in White and Yellow Henri Matisse, Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge, London signed Claude Monet, Woman in front of an open window , also called the bride of Paul Gauguin, self-Portrait , Meyer de Haan and Woman with Eyes Closed of Lucian Freud.
Despite their value, none of the paintings was equipped with an alarm. They had been transported hidden in the cushions up in Romania, where their trace is lost after an unsuccessful attempt of sale. This no-sales were allowed, however, to identify the perpetrators of the theft, and led to their arrest.
