The thought-to-be-stolen, actually apparently-not-stolen framed gouache artwork underwent forensic analysis by police working with Spain's Historical Heritage Brigade, who are continuing the investigation.  They have confirmed that the artwork is the original work by the Malaga-born artist.  Once their ongoing investigation concludes, the painting will be returned to the private collector who originally loaned the piece to the CajaGranada Foundation exhibition.

Initial reports had previously stated that the painting had been packed on September 25 and departed the capital on October 2 in a van escorted by two couriers.  That brief, four-hour journey took a puzzling turn as the couriers are said to have made an unusual overnight stop in Deifontes a short distance from their delivery point, sleeping inside their vehicle to guard their high-value cargo, which had a total insured value exceeding €6 million. 

A short while after the shipment of 58 still life works from the 17th century and the 20th century had been delivered to the CajaGranada-Motril Cultural Center, the Picasso was registered as missing. 

The current line of thinking with the Policía Nacional is that they believe the painting may not have even made it onto the transport truck leaving Spain's capital. 

Recuperado el #Picasso 🖼 desaparecido en su traslado a una exposición en #Granada

Podría no haber llegado a subir al camión de transporte

La Brigada de Patrimonio Histórico de @policia mantiene abierta la investigación una vez que agentes de Policía Científica han… pic.twitter.com/lb5jN8tFvI

— Policía Nacional (@policia) October 24, 2025

Still Life with Guitar (1919) by Pablo Ruiz Picasso 12.7cm by 9.8cm Paper, Gouache & Pencil

A privately-owned Pablo Picasso painting, Still Life with Guitar (1919), has mysteriously vanished while being transported from Madrid to Granada for inclusion in an exhibition, prompting a police investigation into what appears to be a carefully orchestrated theft.

The gouache and lead pencil painting, insured for €600,000, ten times its estimated market value, was being loaned to Bodegón: La eternidad de lo inerte (Still Life: The Eternity of the Inanimate), an exhibition of 58 still life works from the 17th century and the 20th century, two key time periods in the still life genre.  The exhibition, organised by the CajaGranada Foundation in collaboration with CaixaBank, opened on 9 October and is set to run through 11 January 2026 and traces a journey of these works from the Flemish Baroque through to the Post Cubist period.

Unfortunately, when exhibition staff at the Centro Cultural CajaGranada-Motril  began unpacking the shipping crates to begin the installation they discovered that the Picasso work on paper was not among the other objects inventoried. 

The painting, loaned from a private Madrid collection had been packed on September 25 and departed the capital on October 2 in a van escorted by two couriers.  The brief, four-hour journey appears to have taken a puzzling turn as the couriers are said to have made an unusual overnight stop at 8:30 pm in Deifontes, a small town just 23 short kilometres north of the destination city, Granada.

Quoted in news articles,  Deifontes mayor Paco Abril Tenorio, said the decision by the drivers to stop overnight was “very strange.” “Granada is just over a quarter of an hour from here,” he told ABC newspaper. “I don’t understand why they had to stop here to spend the night.”

The couriers reportedly took turns sleeping inside the vehicle to guard their high-value cargo, which had a total insured value exceeding €6 million.  Their detour however, was not part of the agreed-upon itinerary and is now part of the focus of the police inquiry.

The van is said to have arrived at the CajaGranada-Motril Cultural Center the next morning, where the artworks were unloaded in a video-monitored surveillance zone and signed in by the exhibition manager.  However, because the crates were not individually numbered, staff were unable to confirm whether all items matched the shipment list without opening them. The boxes remained sealed under surveillance throughout the weekend, and it was only when curators began installation on Monday that Still Life with Guitar was discovered missing.

The foundation immediately alerted police, who are reviewing security footage and route logs to determine whether the disappearance occurred during the Deifontes stop, in transit, or after the paintings' arrival in Granada. No arrests have yet been made.

The theft adds to a long history of high-profile Picasso disappearances. His works—coveted by collectors and art thieves alike—are among the most frequently stolen in the world, with the Art Loss Register ranking the artist as the world’s most frequently stolen artist, with 1,147 missing works reported. 

As investigators continue their search, Still Life with Guitar joins a troubling catalogue of missing Picassos—reminders of both the artist’s enduring allure and the persistent vulnerability of cultural treasures in transit.

In an essay entitled “The Paris Art Theft, May 2010,” Catherine Schofield Sezgin relates the events of the theft of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in the 16th arrondissement in Paris and speculates about how the thief may have stolen five paintings.

"In 2009, early January, I was ending a two-week holiday in Paris. We had been staying next door to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris but had not been inside it. On Saturday evening, the night before leaving, I left my children in the apartment and walked next door to check out the permanent collection which was free. The museum would be closing in a few minutes. I headed downstairs and started looking at paintings, somewhat sure that after days and days in Paris at the Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre and the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou that there wasn't much more for me to see in such short time. And then I saw this painting of trees that amazed me, and discovered that it was by Braque, titled, in English, Olive Tree Near Estaque. I just loved it and am happy to share these photos now." -- Catherine Schofield Sezgin.