Man finds stolen Picasso etching eight years after gallery theft

A man spotted something extraordinary in a Milwaukee property: a Picasso etching signed by the artist himself. It was later traced to a gallery theft from eight years ago. Here's how it was found

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Man finds stolen Picasso etching in Milwaukee property eight years after gallery theft

The man who found a stolen Picasso etching in Wisconsin on Friday said he found it inside a building and turned it over to Milwaukee police.

“It was in a back bedroom behind a door,” Timothy Dertz, speaking exclusively with sister station WISN, said. “A very odd placement for such a piece of art. I guess we know why now.”

Dertz said he was cleaning his vacant property in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood after an eviction.

“It was in a weird spot kind of hanging on a wall, and it looked like it had been there a long, long time because it had collected tons of dust across the top of it,” Dertz said.

Dertz brought in an antique expert to look at items the tenant left behind, and the expert noticed the Picasso.

WISN reports that Dertz said he later searched online for how much it might be worth and discovered it was actually stolen from a Milwaukee art gallery eight years ago.

The piece is one of 30 prints and is signed by Picasso himself.

Milwaukee police on Friday told WISN the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years. They said the case remains under investigation.