Stolen Picasso etching returned to Milwaukee police 8 years later
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — An original 1949 Pablo Picasso etching is back in safe hands, eight years after it was stolen from a Milwaukee art appraiser.
Milwaukee police said a person walked into a police station Wednesday with the piece. On Thursday, an authenticator confirmed it was the stolen artwork.
The plot is like something out of a movie: In 2018, an unknown person walked out of an art gallery with an expensive piece of artwork from one of the world's most famous artists.
Few people expected to ever see it again.
But now, it's back.
Bill DeLind, owner of DeLind Fine Art Appraisals, said when he got the phone call from police, "It was so amazing. I didn't know if I could sleep. It was... wow."
DeLind said he had honestly forgotten all about the stolen Picasso. It had been so long that he gave up years ago on ever getting it back.
That changed when Milwaukee police told him a person walked into a police station to drop off the print. It was safe.
"Every [Picasso] is special," DeLind said. "This was a very special piece for me. And I felt devastated when it was stolen."
The piece is called "Torero," or "the bullfighter." It is black ink on woven paper, framed and one of only 30 copies created by Pablo Picasso in 1949.
Picasso signed the bottom with a green crayon.
It was stolen in 2018 when someone took it from a display case at DeLind's downtown art gallery and walked off with it in the middle of the day.
At the time, DeLind told CBS 58, "Somebody either knew what they were doing or just got lucky."
The piece was soon registered with stolen-art databases in London and New York.
The theft made national news.
"I had phone calls from people around the country saying, 'If you ever get it back, call me. I want to buy it,'" DeLind said.
The statute of limitations for felony theft is six years, which has now expired. Milwaukee police do not expect criminal charges to be filed, though detectives are still investigating.
When it was stolen, DeLind valued the piece at $35,000 to $50,000.
Now, he is not sure of its value. He has not yet seen the piece since it was recovered, but the notoriety surrounding the theft could increase its value significantly.
DeLind's insurance company now technically owns the artwork after paying out the insurance claim years ago. But he hopes to work with the company and eventually hang it again in his gallery.
He's also open to selling it.
"Never in a thousand years would I have expected we would ever, ever see it again," DeLind said.
Milwaukee police did not give interviews Thursday, but CBS 58 asked off camera whether the person who returned the piece was responsible for the theft, a good Samaritan or someone else.
Police said they are leaning toward the person being a good Samaritan.