Picasso masterpiece discovered nine years after it was stolen in brazen heist – World News

Picasso’s painting “Woman’s Head” and Piet Mondrian’s “Mill,” which were snatched from Greece’s National Gallery in a daring raid, were found in a gorge on the outskirts of Athens

Police have recovered two stolen artworks by 20th-century master painters that were snatched in a gallery heist.

Greek police said they have recovered pieces by Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian, both of which were stolen from Greece’s National Gallery in 2012.

The paintings were stripped from their frames and spirited away in a matter of minutes.

Thieves broke in the gallery and snatched Picasso’s 1939 painting “Woman’s Head”, donated by the artist in 1949, and Dutch painter Mondrian’s “Mill,” dated 1905.

To mislead the guard, the thieves activated the gallery’s alarm system several times before breaking into the building in the small hours of the morning.

The guard turned off the alarm only to later spot one of the thieves through the motion detector.

The burglar dropped another 1905 Mondrian painting before escaping.

Police on Monday found the two artworks hidden at a gorge in the outskirts of the city.

Reuters news agency, citing an anonymous police official, reported that a Greek man had been arrested after the paintings were discovered.

Picasso, one of the most influential and prolific artists of the early 20th-century, is considered a pioneer of cubism.

He had donated the painting to the gallery in 1949, saying the gift was in recognition of Greece’s resistance to Nazi Germany.

The 1939 portrait features a woman in his distinctive cubist style.

Mondrian is perhaps best known for his striking primary colour abstract paintings, often imitated in contemporary fashion and design.

The painting snatched from the gallery is a post-impressionist work, before Mondrian decided to limit his palette to his signature red, yellow, and blue.

Greek authorities are due to make an official statement on the case on Tuesday.

Monday’s announcement of a major breakthrough came months after it was reported that investigators believe the artworks were still in the country.

Highly valuable Picasso works have previously been targeted by art thieves.

In May 2010, a masked burglar broke into the Paris Museum of Modern Art at 3am by removing the glass from a window and whisked away “Le pigeon aux petit pois” (pigeon with peas).

It was one of five artworks stolen in the raid, along with pieces by Georges Braque and Henri Matisse, which were together valued at €100 million (£85m).

Investigators said the brazen theft was not discovered until the following morning because the motion sensor and the alarm that should have been activated by the break-in were out of order.

The burglar was tracked down and sentenced to eight years behind bars.

He and his two accomplices were ordered to pay a fine of €104m (£89m).

One of the accomplices who confessed to receiving the stolen goods claimed that he threw the stolen artworks in the trash – although detectives never believed them.

At the time, experts described the theft as “one of the biggest art heists ever”.