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PARIS - Two Picasso paintings valued at 50 million euros ($95 million) were stolen this week from the Paris home of the Spanish painter's granddaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, police said today.
"The paintings which were stolen are known throughout the world, they've been seen everywhere," Widmaier Picasso's lawyer Paul Lombard told Reuters.
The paintings, identified by police as "Maya a la poupee" (Maya with doll) a 1938 portrait of the artist's daughter, and "Portrait de femme, Jacqueline" were stolen in the night of Monday to Tuesday (European time) from her home in the French capital.
Lombard said Widmaier Picasso and a friend had been in the building, a grand house in Paris' smart seventh arrondissement, and the circumstances of the theft were still unclear, with no obvious signs of a break-in.
"No one knows the exact circumstances of the theft," he said.
The investigation is being handled by the police's organised crime division. The spokesman said there was no obvious sign of a break-in at the apartment.
- REUTERS
