Artworld mystery as Picasso painting disappears on way from Madrid to Granada exhibition

The disappearance of a Picasso painting that was being transported from Madrid to Granada is still a mystery. Sources say that investigators are checking security camera footage both from the museum in Granada and the storage space in Madrid. The first of two main unanswered questions concerns why the drivers decided to spend the night in Deifontes. Foundation sources said that that stop was not scheduled. The same sources said that when the works were being packaged up in Madrid, the Picasso was given number 15. There was no indication on the outside of the packages as to which painting was which. The missing painting is small and was by no means the most valuable piece among the collection in the van.

A 600,000-euro Picasso painting has gone missing just before it was supposed to be put on display at the Fundación CajaGranada exhibition space in Granada. The work in question is Still Life with Guitar, painted by the Malaga artist in 1919. The National Police have been investigating the case since 6 October, when the exhibition organisers realised that one of the paintings they had to hang was missing. Despite the missing piece, the Granada exhibition opened last week, but the search for the artwork is still on.

The National Police have only said that the case is open, without offering further information. However, Granada newspaper IDEAL has gained access to the versions of events of the complainant and the transport company that was in charge of taking the artworks from Madrid to Granada.

On 25 September, five workers collected the paintings from their owner in Madrid. They packed and assembled them in two vans. The process, which took an hour, was supervised by two curators of the exhibition, as well as by the owner and his niece.

Reportedly, there were two incidents at this point. First, two of the paintings had duplicated numbers. Second, one more painting was added to the agreed list of works, at the owner's request. Once they were all packed, they were moved to the vans under surveillance, at least in theory.

They were then driven to the company's warehouse in Madrid and stored in a chamber with exhaustive control measures, such as CCTV and a security alarm. According to workers, the alarm did not go off at any time.

In this type of exhibition, which includes works by several owners, the paintings are usually collected in the same place before being moved together, which in this case took place just a week later, on Thursday, 2 October. On that day, they were loaded in a van that left for Granada close to 4pm. At around 8.30pm, the van stopped in Deifontes so that the drivers could take turns to sleep inside the vehicle. According to the transport company, the pair supervised the artworks at all times, including during dinner and breakfast.

The following day, Friday 3 October, they set off for Fundación CajaGranada, where the van's contents were unloaded in the presence of CajaGranada workers. They noticed that the packages were not correctly numbered. The missing Picasso had been assigned number 15. The head of exhibitions confirmed with a signature that the delivery had been completed, but they didn't count the paintings at that moment.

Over the weekend, the works were stored under camera surveillance. The footage is now in the possession of the National Police. It was the following Monday, 6 October, when the museum employees proceeded to unpack the works and saw that one small painting, Pablo Picasso's Still Life with Guitar, was missing. Painted in gouache and lead white, the work's insurance value is 600,000 euros.

Fundación CajaGranada reported the incident to the National Police. According to sources, the painting must have gone missing sometime between leaving the owner's house and arriving in Granada. In addition, those same sources have said that the list of artworks was "very badly ordered".