CAUGHT RED-HANDED

Authorities Seize $460K Picasso Sketch Man Tried to Claim Was a Print

Spanish officials in Ibiza intercepted the Picasso sketch, which the man tried to pass off as a print with a fake receipt.

Spanish authorities seized an original Pablo Picasso sketch worth $463,000 after a man tried to smuggle it out of the country using a fake receipt valuing the drawing at only $1,550, Artnet News reports. Ibiza airport officials were alerted to the sketch, Picasso’s 1966 “Trois Personnages,” after Zurich airport customs flagged its packaging as suspicious on July 5. After taking a closer look, Spanish authorities found a second receipt within the man’s luggage from a Zurich art gallery that identified the piece as a Picasso original worth $463,000. Officials seized the art after the man failed to claim it and sent it to an art expert in the ministry of culture, who authenticated the piece as a genuine Picasso. Although charges have not yet been filed, the man could face charges of smuggling, failing to state the work’s value, and falsifying a receipt to authorities.