Stolen Picasso found in Iraq drug raid

Iraq's Ministry of Interior believes the painting is worth millions of dollars

The condition and other details of the painting, assumed to be Pablo Picasso's, are unclear, making it difficult to date or name the work. Getty Imges

A painting believed to be by Pablo Picasso has been found during an anti-drugs raid in Iraq's province of Diyala.

The work, which when authenticated could be worth millions of dollars, was found in the possession of three people arrested for their involvement in the trade and transport of narcotics.

The condition of the artwork is unclear and details of its size and the subject matter have also not been disclosed.

The Ministry of Interior announced that the painting's discovery was part of security operations that have been ongoing since July.

“The work is ongoing and intensive to curb the trade, promotion and use of drugs," Colonel Bilal Sobhi told the Iraqi News Agency.

Sobhi said that 1,300 suspects had been arrested and 46 kilograms of narcotic substances and 37kg of stimulants had been seized since the security operation began. He called on people to continue assisting police to dismantle drug networks.

This is not the first time a suspected Picasso has been found in Iraq.

In August 2009, police recovered a rare painting by the Spanish master in the town of Hillah, central Iraq. Said to be stolen during the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the painting, titled Naked Woman, was marked with the word "Louvre" and included stamps from the Paris museum.

However, the Louvre Museum denied ever having a Picasso in its collection, while the Art Loss Register in London stated they had no record of any missing paintings from the Kuwait National Museum.

It is also unclear whether the recent, unauthenticated Picasso is the only artwork or cultural artefact that may have been held as collateral by the suspects.

"The drug trade is linked to many crimes,” Sobhi said. “Including murder, theft, kidnapping, rape, gang formation, corruption and family disintegration, until it reaches the antiquities trade.”

The use of famous artworks, or pieces by renowned artists, as bartering collateral has become a profitable, and increasingly popular means for organised crime groups to secure deals in recent years.

Caravaggio's 'Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence' (1609) has been missing since 1969 when it was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo. Photo: public domain

Most notably, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s Nativity was stolen from the church of San Lorenzo in Palermo by members of Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, in 1969. The masterwork is still missing.

Since then, many artworks by Vincent van Gogh, Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet and LS Lowry have been stolen with the intention of being sold within a closed black market, or to be used as barter or collateral in deals with other organised crime groups.

Eight stolen artworks that are still missing — in pictures

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  'Poppy Flowers' by Vincent van Gogh. The 1887 painting was stolen from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo, in August, 2010. Photo: Commons

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  'Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois' by Pablo Picasso. The painting was stolen in May, 2010, from the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Photo: Commons

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  'View of Auvers-sur-Oise' by Cezanne. On New Year’s Eve 1999, the artwork was stolen from the Ashmolean Museum at University of Oxford in a theft UK police believe was stolen-to-order. Photo: Commons

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  'Portrait of a Young Man' by Raphael. The $100 million artwork was looted by the Nazis when they invaded Poland in 1939. It was last seen in 1945, but then disappeared. Photo: Commons

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  'The Storm on the Sea of Galilee' by Rembrandt. The piece was one of 13 works stolen from a museum in Boston, US, in a $500 million heist. Photo: Commons

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  'Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence' by Caravaggio. This $20 million work was stolen from a church in Sicily, with a mafia informant claiming a mob boss used it as a floor mat. Photo: Commons

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  'Francis Bacon' by Lucian Freud. The artwork was stolen from a Berlin gallery in a short half hour window during an exhibition. EPA

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  'Charing Cross Bridge, London' by Claude Monet. After it was stolen from a Rotterdam museum, the mother of one of the alleged thieves claimed she burned the artwork in her fireplace to protect her son. Photo: Commons