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Picasso Heist Stuns Art Miami Satellite Fair

Art Miami

It’s hardly his most famous or most valuable work, but it’s a Picasso nonetheless. And Thursday night it was believed to be stolen from Art Miami in Midtown. That’s one of the prominent satellite fairs to the main Art Basel Miami Beach.

The piece is called “Face With Hands” (Visage Aux Mains). It’s an engraved silver plate, about 16 inches in diameter, part of a series Pablo Picasso made in 1956. Miami Herald reporter Patricia Mazzei is following this story and tells us this is an unusual heist:

"They’re dusting for finger prints and looking through the lists of the folks who were allowed to be in the building at that time. The owner of the gallery speculated that this was a piece that was small enough that it could fit if it were hidden under someone’s sweater or jacket. The owner of the gallery, who is a gallery from the Netherlands, said this is unusual not just for Miami but in general for art fairs. And the Art Miami folks, they’re pretty all shocked that this would happen."

The work will ultimately be listed in an international “lost art” database. It’s valued at $85,000.

Tim Padgett is the Americas Editor for WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida. Contact Tim at tpadgett@wlrnnews.org
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