Picasso print stolen in 2018 found in vacant Milwaukee apartment

A Picasso print stolen from a Milwaukee art gallery in 2018 has been recovered after a landlord found it while clearing out a vacant apartment, police and the gallery owner said.

Bill DeLind, whose Milwaukee gallery had handled the work, said police contacted him last week after the landlord, Tim Dertz, discovered the framed print, Caliber.Az reports, citing The Independent.

DeLind immediately identified it as the stolen “Torero” etching, one of 30 known copies signed by Picasso. “I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said. “I was at a loss for words. It was an overwhelming moment for me.”

A sticker from DeLind Fine Art Appraisals was still attached to the back of the framed print, as it had been in 2018. “It was indeed mine,” DeLind said. “It came back full circle.”

Dertz told WISN-TV that he found the print while cleaning out an apartment belonging to a tenant who had been evicted.

“It was kind of in a weird spot hanging on a wall,” Tim Dertz told the station. “It looked like it had been there for a long, long time because it had tons of dust across the top of it.”

Dertz said an antique dealer friend recognised the work as a Picasso and believed it could be the print DeLind had reported stolen.

He handed the artwork to police, who then contacted DeLind.

“When they called me, I was in disbelief,” DeLind said.

The Milwaukee Police Department said the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years, but the case remains under investigation. The FBI in Milwaukee declined to comment.

DeLind said the artwork was appraised at between $35,000 and $50,000 when it was stolen. He estimated its value had not changed significantly, although its history could now put it closer to $50,000.

The print remains in police custody while the client who had commissioned the work for sale through DeLind's gallery works with his insurance company, DeLind said.

DeLind also recalled that his former business partner, who died in February, had been deeply upset by the theft. He had called police each year on the anniversary of the crime, asking them to publicise the case in the hope that the Picasso would be recovered.

“He would have been over the moon about this,” DeLind said. “It was special to him.”

By Aghakazim Guliyev