CULTURE

Stolen Picasso’s damage not visible to naked eye

Stolen Picasso’s damage not visible to naked eye

Although the case of the two stolen works from the National Art Gallery in Athens was closed with last month’s trial and conviction of the thief, Pablo Picasso’s “Head of a Woman” failed to escape without scar, despite that being invisible to the naked eye.

The work now on display in the gallery has certainly been preserved and restored. However, its decade-long stay with the thief has caused irreparable damage.

“The two works that were stolen from the National Gallery have undergone structural changes that are not visible to the eye. Specifically, for Pablo Picasso’s ‘Head of a Woman’ it was found that the cohesion of the layers – i.e. the contact of the color layers with the support (fabric) – was greatly disturbed, making it fragile and unstable, as was also testified during my examination at the public hearing of the criminal court on January 20,” said Efi Agathonikou, director of collections at the National Gallery.

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