A stolen Pablo Picasso print worth $50,000 has been claimed by its rightful owner after it was discovered by a landlord in Wisconsin while cleaning out a vacant apartment.
Gallery owner Bill DeLind thought the print by the iconic Spanish artist was gone for good after it was stolen in 2018 from his Milwaukee showroom.
Then, last week, he got a call from police. They wanted him to took at the reduction-style image that a Milwaukee landlord had discovered while turning around one of his apartments.
DeLind knew immediately what he was looking at. It was his stolen “Torero” print, one of 30 known to exist signed by Picasso, the New York Post and other outlets reported.
“I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said Friday. “I was at a loss for words. It was an overwhelming moment for me.”
“It was indeed mine,” he added. “It came back full circle.”
The landlord, Tim Dertz, told WISN-TV that he found the print while cleaning out an apartment of a tenant he had to evict.
“It was kind of in a weird spot hanging on a wall,” Tim Dertz told the station, per the Post’s report. “It looked like it had been there for a long, long time because it had tons of dust across the top of it.”
The landlord said he showed it to an antique dealer friend who recognized it as an authentic Picasso.
Dertz handed it over to police, who then contacted DeLind.
The Milwaukee Police Department told the Post Friday that the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years. Still, the case remains under investigation, the department said.
Detectives have yet to reveal how or why the evicted tenant had the print or whether that resident was involved in the theft.
The year it was stolen the piece was appraised at between $35,000 and $50,000, DeLind told news outlets, and he believes it remains close to the $50,000 figure in 2026.
Milwaukee police still have custody of the artwork while any claims for the stolen item are worked out with an insurance company, DeLind said.
Typically, if an item is stolen or lost and claimed and compensated by an insurance carrier, the holder of the policy has to pay back money they received.
DeLind said his former business partner, who died in February, was extremely upset over the 2018 theft. He called the police every year on the anniversary date of the crime, asking cops to publicize it again in the hope the Picasso could be found.
“He would have been over the moon about this,” DeLind said. “It was special to him.”
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
