Stolen Picasso Portrait Of Dora Maar Recovered In Turkey

A stolen painting attributed to the Spanish master Pablo Picasso has been recovered in Turkey by local police. The undercover operation in Istanbul, has turned up “Woman Dressing Her Hair” which was stolen from a collector in New York. The painting features the artist’s lover Dora Maar. It was excuited in 1940 and is considered one of his most sought after periods. 

Similar paintings offered at auction have realised £30m Picasso was a serial womanizer. When Marie-Thérèse became jealous of Picasso’s affair with the artist Dora Maar, in 1936 she tracked her down to Picasso’s studio where she was modeling as the crying woman in his painting Guernica. Asked about this incident, in later life Picasso remarked that he had been quite happy with the situation and that when they demanded that he choose between them, he told them that they would have to fight it out themselves, at which point the two women began a cat fight. Picasso described it “as one of his choicest memories”.

Turkish police were thought to have posed as potential buyers, meeting the prospective sellers in a hotel and then at a yacht in an Istanbul marina. The suspects are alleged to have initially demanded $8m for the painting but later settled on $7m.  The painting has been sent to Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University for further examination. Picasso remains the most stolen artist on history.

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