A tiny painting barely larger than a postcard has caused weeks of international intrigue and police investigation. The artwork, Pablo Picasso's "Still Life with Guitar" valued at $650,000, mysteriously vanished while being transported for a special exhibition in Granada, Spain. After an exhaustive search that even considered connections to the recent Louvre heist in Paris, the missing masterpiece was discovered in the most unlikely of places: a janitor's broom closet in Madrid.
The drama began over a month ago when more than 50 artworks were scheduled to arrive in Granada for a special still life exhibition. When curators carefully examined the shipment that had been transported from Madrid by freight company, they made a shocking discovery: Picasso's 1919 "Still Life with Guitar" was missing from the collection. The small but invaluable painting had simply vanished without a trace.
Spanish National Police immediately launched an investigation, followed by Granada's robbery division. Investigators initially theorized that thieves had struck when the delivery truck made an overnight stop just outside Granada. Officers meticulously reconstructed the delivery route kilometer by kilometer and analyzed surveillance camera footage. When a robbery occurred at the Louvre in Paris around the same time, Spanish investigators even considered the possibility of a connection to an internationally networked criminal organization.
However, after more than two weeks of fruitless searching, the trail led not to an international art theft ring, but to Calle Pius XII in Madrid's Chamartín district. More specifically, it led to the janitor's storage room of a building in that area. The truth was far more mundane than anyone had imagined: the missing Picasso had never even made it onto the freight truck in the first place.
The painting had never left the building from which it was supposed to be collected. Apparently, the shipping company had simply forgotten it during pickup. The artwork had been sitting in plain sight, leaning against a door, where 69-year-old janitor Dolores discovered it. "I found the package leaning against the door," Dolores told the newspaper El País. "I thought it was from Amazon or something, but I don't interfere with that stuff." For safety, she moved the mysterious package to her janitor's room and stored it among other items.
Dolores, who prefers to be identified only by her first name in media reports, had no idea she was harboring a priceless work of art. Her shock must have been enormous when three police officers knocked on her door at the end of October. The discovery came about through a chance encounter: her 71-year-old husband had been talking to a neighbor while putting out trash cans when the neighbor mentioned her disappointment about a missing package. When he told Dolores about the conversation, the janitor remembered the bubble-wrapped bundle and informed the neighbor, who agreed to pick up the package. That's when police arrived.
The investigation that followed was intense and thorough. Dolores was immediately separated from her husband and questioned for hours. Officers even asked her what she knew about the jewels from the Louvre heist. The painting was still lying in the storage room, packed for transport, among other packages, magazines, and various odds and ends that Dolores stores for the small kiosk she operates on the side. Forensic investigators in white full-body suits secured the suspected crime scene and photographed the package from all angles.
Now Dolores has only one remaining concern, as she reported to El País journalists. She worries that people in her homeland of Peru might think she's a thief. She had been following newspaper reports about the missing Picasso, never suspecting she was involved in the case. The experience has taught Dolores a valuable lesson: she never wants to accept other people's packages again, not even those from Amazon. The incident serves as a reminder that sometimes the most extraordinary mysteries have the most ordinary explanations.
