A Stolen Picasso Spent Eight Years Hiding Behind An Apartment Door
Well, this is one very expensive version of “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.” A signed Pablo Picasso print stolen from a Milwaukee art gallery more than eight years ago has finally resurfaced — not in a secret collector’s vault, not at an auction house, but hanging behind a door in a dusty vacant apartment.
The work is Torero, a 1949 Picasso etching depicting a bullfighter. The signed print disappeared from DeLind Fine Art Appraisals in downtown Milwaukee on February 16, 2018, and investigators came up empty. Gallery owner Bill DeLind eventually assumed he would never see it again.
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When Art Goes Missing
Picasso remains one of the world’s most frequently stolen artists — and the stories behind recovered works can be almost as fascinating as the art itself.
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Then A Milwaukee Landlord Walked Into A Very Strange Bedroom
Enter landlord Tim Dertz, who was clearing out a Milwaukee apartment after evicting a tenant. The place was reportedly packed with abandoned belongings, and in a back bedroom — behind a door, in a spot Dertz thought looked odd — hung the framed print beneath years of accumulated dust.
Dertz brought in antiques dealer Chad Strack to see whether anything left behind might have value. Strack looked at the print and recognized that it was a Picasso. A quick search did the rest: Dertz discovered that the artwork had been reported stolen years earlier.
The Gallery Sticker Was Still Sitting On The Back
Dertz turned the piece over to Milwaukee police, who contacted DeLind. When the longtime art dealer saw the print again, the identification was immediate: the DeLind Fine Art Appraisals sticker was still attached to the frame, exactly where it had been before the theft.
“I was overwhelmed,” DeLind said after the recovery. “I was at a loss for words.” Considering he had spent eight years believing the Picasso was gone forever, fair.
And This Wasn’t Some Random Picasso Reproduction
Torero is one of just 30 known signed impressions of the work. The 1949 aquatint was printed on delicate paper and carries Picasso’s signature in green. Estimates reported after its recovery have ranged from roughly $35,000 to $50,000, though the strange eight-year disappearance may now become part of the artwork’s provenance too.
The print had originally been consigned for sale through DeLind’s gallery. After the theft, an insurance claim was paid, meaning the recovery also comes with the less glamorous part of art-world drama: figuring out who legally owns what now that the missing work is back.
The Mystery Of How It Got There Is Not Over
Police have not publicly explained how the Picasso ended up inside the apartment or whether the former tenant had any connection to the 2018 theft. The case remains under investigation.
So after eight years, one of Milwaukee’s stranger art mysteries has at least half an ending: the Picasso is back. How it spent nearly a decade collecting dust behind an apartment door is another story entirely.
Inside The Recovery Of Picasso’s Missing “Torero” Print
Images connected to the Milwaukee recovery show the print and the local investigation that finally brought the long-missing work back into view.
The recovered Picasso Torero print and images connected to its return in Milwaukee. Credit: KTLA 5.
Watch The Report On The Picasso Found In A Vacant Milwaukee Apartment
The supplied news report covers the discovery of the long-missing Torero print and how it made its way back to Milwaukee authorities.
Source: KTLA 5.
