Picasso work »Woman's Head« before the robbery in 2012
Photo: Christina Zachopoulou / dpa
One of the more spectacular art robberies of the recent past seems to be about to be investigated.
At least the stolen goods worth millions have already been secured.
The Greek police have confiscated Pablo Picasso's work "Frauenkopf", which was stolen from the Athens art gallery more than nine years ago.
The alleged mastermind behind the art theft is said to be a 49-year-old man, the Greek media reported on Monday evening.
Both the Picasso painting and a Piet Mondrian picture were found in a warehouse around 50 kilometers from Athens.
The Mondrian is said to be damaged.
The Ministry of Culture in Athens confirmed the reappearance of the works.
Details are to be announced at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
The police started the investigation again last February, because experts assumed that the "woman's head" could never be sold on the black market - and therefore had never left Greece.
In addition to the estimated value of around 16.5 million euros, Picasso's picture has another special meaning for Greece: The picture was once given to the country by the artist himself for the resistance against the National Socialists.
Wächter could not find perpetrators
The Picasso work was stolen in a break-in in January 2012.
As the police said at the time, the perpetrator or perpetrators entered the art gallery through a window.
The break-in was noticed when the museum's alarm system was activated just before five in the morning.
A guard saw a man running away, it said.
The National Gallery in Athens was founded in 1900.
Her focus is on works by Greek artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, but works by Delacroix, Brueghel and Caravaggio also belong to her.
jok / dpa
