Stephanie G. Mathis In the Belgian city Antwerp, a pair of paintings by 20th-century artists Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso that went missing 14 years ago in an art theft have finally been recovered.
In 2010, thieves broke into the family’s home and stole them, along with $680,000 worth of jewelry. Philip Oltermann of the Guardian reports that thieves stole the artworks, as well as $680,000 in jewelry, from the home.
According to a declaration by Belgian authorities, at the time of the break-in, the paintings were estimated to be worth $900,000. It is still unclear where the jewelry is.
According to a translation by Euronews, David Mouriquand, “Despite the alarm system being very sophisticated and efficient, the thieves were able to neutralize it and enter the empty house without being detected.” The thieves only took the Chagall and Picasso paintings after breaking into the safe that contained the jewelry. Other paintings were left unharmed.
Over a decade passed before law enforcement agencies were able to find these workers. In 2022, the police received information that an art dealer from Namur, a Belgian city, was selling them.
According to the statement, a “delicate and meticulous” investigation was launched. According to the Guardian, Namur authorities began tracking the suspect in secret. He was an Israeli luxury watch dealer whom police knew as “Daniel Z.” They gathered information over several months about his friends and places of visit.
Google Translate reports that these efforts “made a possible to establish that suspect was in possession and that they could be at his home or the home of a relative,” Belgian authorities.
The police raided a suspect’s house on January 10th. While they did not find the paintings in the home, they found an unusually high amount of cash.
Investigators then interrogated the suspect, and his wife admitted to owning the paintings but refused to reveal where they were.
The Guardian reports that two days later, the police expanded their search in Antwerp to include a nearby building where they looked into a previous case of art theft. They found two wooden boxes in the basement with their lids screwed on. The boxes contained stolen Picassos and Chagalls.
The authorities claim that the two paintings are in their original frames and have not been damaged.
The subject was arrested after being charged with the theft of the paintings.
