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Missing Picasso Found in Iraq?! Probably Not.
The Naked Woman likely not missing, nor a Picasso, say experts
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Aug 27, 09 3:45 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Iraqi security forces have secured a purported Pablo Picasso painting believed stolen from a Kuwaiti museum during the 1990 invasion, the Times of London reports. Only it’s probably not a Picasso. “It bears absolutely no relation to any Picasso that I can think of,” says one expert. Iraqi forces obtained the painting when they pulled off a sting on the son of a Shia man who had fought in the war and was trying to sell it for at least a “down payment” of $450,000.
No museums or authorities have a record of The Naked Woman going missing—or of anything being missing from the Kuwait National Museum, for that matter. Whatever it is, the “painting was slightly damaged as he had folded it at least four times,” a security official says. It bears the mark “Picasso,” and on its reverse has a note reading “the Louvre; to the museum of kuwait.” The Louvre has never owned a Picasso.