The Guggenheim Wants Its Picasso Back
The museum sues for ownership of a Picasso painting stolen in 1961, plus new affordable housing for artists in Philly.
In 1961, a painting by Pablo Picasso on loan from the Guggenheim Museum mysteriously vanished from the University of Pittsburgh. This week, the museum filed a lawsuit to get it back. Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia has the scoop on the rediscovery and where it’s been for the last six decades.
In other rediscovered painting news, Staff Writer Anna Lee reports on a 17th-century Flemish still life that surfaced after years lost in storage at the National Museum of Norway, where it will soon be correctly attributed to artist Clara Peeters for the first time.
More below, including Art Movements, Required Reading, and some of the best films on art and resistance that critic Elodie Saint-Louis and I saw at the unparalleled BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia last weekend. Coincidentally, BlackStar shares an office building with the Village of Industry & Art, a nonprofit that plans to transform the city’s shuttered dorm rooms into affordable apartment units. As loyal as I am to Pittsburgh, I gotta say, Philly’s art scene is cooking.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
A Picasso Vanished in 1961. The Guggenheim Now Wants It Back
The Picasso had disappeared without a trace.
On the morning of February 6, 1961, a graduate student and dormitory aide at the University of Pittsburgh reported Picasso’s painting “Femme dans un fauteuil” (1918) missing from the Students Union building. The 13.5-by-10.5-inch oil had been on loan from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for an exhibition in the fall semester, and was due to be returned to the museum later that month. The school reported the theft to the Pittsburgh Police Department and the FBI was swiftly brought in to investigate, but despite a slew of news articles, notifications to institutions across North America, and a reward for information, the case went cold.
More than six decades later, the Guggenheim says the painting has turned up, and it is headed to court to get it back. | Valentina Di Liscia
Read MoreNews
- The Village of Industry & Art will transform a dormitory in a former Philly UArts building into 45 affordable units for artists by fall 2027.
- A long-misattributed painting is set to resurface in a forthcoming exhibition at the National Museum of Norway, where it will be publicly attributed to the Flemish painter Clara Peeters for the first time.
- Art Movements: New leaders at the Portland Art Museum and Storm King Art Center, the new cohort of fellows at ISLAA, the bittersweet closure of a West Coast arts magazine, Mamdani’s plans for Elizabeth Street Garden, and more.
Film
Six Films on Art and Resistance at BlackStar Film Festival
The Philadelphia festival platformed films on Anishinaabe repatriation, the spirited life of art historian Dr. Leslie King Hammond, the Puerto Rican history of the Upper West Side, and more.| Lakshmi Rivera Amin and Elodie Saint-Louis
Read MoreCommunity
Required Reading
This week: Nancy Spero’s pro-choice art, Valentina Di Liscia on “Casa Cueva,” Brooklyn’s smallest museum, Jamaica Kincaid’s eyebrows, Israeli cuisine and Palestinian erasure, and more.
Read MoreMember Comment
Christopher Knight on “AI Companies Are Pulping Our Humanity”
ICYMI
“American Doctor” Is an Indictment of US Leadership and Media
The new documentary follows three humanitarian physicians as they grapple with the horrors of the US-funded genocide in Gaza. | Rhea Nayyar
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