Greek police find a Picasso painting stolen nine years ago in Athens

The Greek police have found

, a painting painted by Pablo Picasso in 1939, after it was stolen nine years ago from the National Gallery of Athens.

In addition to the work of the Spanish artist, the police have also found a canvas of a landscape with a windmill painted in 1905 by the Dutch Piet Mondrian, which was stolen at the same time in January 2012.

More information

• Greek Culture Minister resigns over robbery at Olympia museum

• Stolen a 'picasso' and a 'mondrian' from the National Gallery of Athens

Police arrested a 49-year-old Greek man on Monday night, who is being investigated for the theft, after recovering the works of art that he allegedly hid in his house in a suburb southeast of the capital Helena, according to media reports. local.

In the early morning of January 9, 2012, two men managed to enter the National Gallery through a balcony that was not locked and there, despite setting off the alarm and being recorded by security cameras, they managed to avoid the guards of security, remove the works from their frames and flee in a few minutes. The authors of the theft also took away a sketch from the early 17th century, attributed to the Italian mannerist Guglielmo Caccia, which was found damaged. Although the outcome has taken years, the Police resumed the investigation at the beginning of the year after considering that the works had not left Greece because they had not been found on the black market.

Ten years after painting

, Picasso offered the cubist painting to the Greek people in recognition of their resistance against the Nazi occupation. Behind the canvas he wrote by hand: “for the Greek people, a tribute to Picasso”. The Greek Ministry of Culture will offer more details about the theft, the discovery and the state of the paintings this Tuesday morning.