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A Stolen $2.5 Million Picasso Has Been Recovered in Queens

The oil painting 'La Coiffeuse' was found masked as an "art craft toy" in a package marked with holiday greetings.
Picasso's La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser). Image: Associated Press, via

It's an admittedly belated Christmas miracle, but the Department of Justice recently announced that on December 17, 2014, long-lost Picasso painting La Coiffeuse mysteriously reappeared in Queens. The $2.5 million Cubist artwork was discovered inside of a package deceptively labeled as a $37 “art craft toy” with a festive flourish—its as-of-yet unidentified Belgian sender marked the parcel, “Joyeux Noel.”

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La Coiffeuse, a 13 x 18 inch oil-on-canvas work, was stolen from the storeroom of a Centre George Pompidou in Paris in November 2001. The curious case will be handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York before the painting will be returned to Paris (sans, we imagine, holiday greetings). Via LA Times

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