A painting by Pablo Picasso stolen from the Pompidou Centre in Paris has been found by a US customs official after it was posted across the Atlantic disguised as a cheap Christmas present.
La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser), painted in 1911, was reported stolen in 2001 when it was discovered missing from the Paris museum.
It lay hidden for the next 14 years until it turned up in Newark in December in a FedEx package from Belgium, labelled as “art craft/toy” with a stated value of $37 (£24) and with the message “Joyeux Noel” (Happy Christmas).
It had been posted by someone called “Robert” to a climate-controlled warehouse in Long Island, according to the New York Times. But customs officers inspecting the package discovered the painting, worth $2.5 million, and passed it on to a specialist unit dealing with international art trafficking.
French museum officials then visited New York to examine the painting and confirmed it was a Picasso. Report in the Telegraph Comments to taglines82@gmail.com
