Handyman suspected in huge Picasso theft

Works missing for years but only noticed in 2011

More than 400 artworks by Pablo Picasso have been stolen from the home of his stepdaughter, she has claimed, in what appears to be one of the most audacious art thefts of recent times.

Catherine Hutin-Blay, the only daughter of the painter’s second wife Jacqueline, believes that as many as 407 works by the Spanish artist were stolen from her home over many months by a former handyman.

The thefts, which she suspects took place between 2005 and 2007, only came to light two years ago when one of the pieces was recognized after it was offered for sale by a Paris gallery.

Hutin-Blay, 65, inherited a vast collection of Picasso’s work on the death of her mother in 1986 and still owns the Chateau de Vauvenargues in the south of France, which Picasso bought in 1958. The works that Hutin-Blay claims were stolen have been conservatively valued collectively at between $1.4 million and $2.7 million.

A two-year investigation has uncovered a “well-organized plot” to steal hundreds of artworks by Picasso and other contemporary artists including Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky and Alberto Giacometti.

It emerged that pieces had also been stolen from Hutin-Blay’s neighbour in Vauvenargues, Sylvie Baltazart-Eon, the daughter of Picasso’s art dealer Aime Maeght. According to Le Parisien, the most likely culprit is a handyman who carried out odd jobs at the homes of both the women.