Thief steals Picasso drawing from S.F. gallery S.F. CRIME

"Tete de Femme," a 1965 drawing by Pablo Picasso that was stolen July 5, 2011, from the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco. "Tete de Femme," a 1965 drawing by Pablo Picasso that was stolen July 5, 2011, from the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco. Photo: Weinstein Gallery Photo: Weinstein Gallery Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Thief steals Picasso drawing from S.F. gallery 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

SAN FRANCISCO -- The well-dressed man in dark glasses didn't attract a second glance when he walked into a gallery near Union Square on Tuesday.

And soon he was gone, after grabbing a drawing by Pablo Picasso that was being offered for more than $200,000, and vanishing in a waiting taxicab, San Francisco police said.

The brazen theft, reported at 11:41 a.m. by the Weinstein Gallery at 383 Geary St., left investigators asking the public - particularly the segment of the public that deals and dabbles in high-end art - for help.

"We're hoping someone in the public might recognize this piece, if they see someone walking around with it or trying to sell it," said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman.

Many pieces of art are difficult to steal because of their sheer size, but Picasso's 1965 pencil drawing, "Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman)," is 10 5/8 by 8 1/4 inches, about the size of a standard sheet of paper.

It was part of a collection that Picasso originally gave to his driver, Maurice Bresnu, and was purchased this spring at auction for $122,500, said gallery President Rowland Weinstein.

Weinstein returned from his honeymoon in Europe on Tuesday to news of the first-ever major theft from his gallery. He said it had challenged his goal of putting high-level work in front of the public at street level.

All around the empty niche where the Picasso drawing hung until Tuesday were works of similar pedigree, including Marc Chagall's "Maternite Rouge," 1980; Salvador Dali's "La Divine Comedie Inferno Canto 19"; and, on a pedestal, Joan Miró's 1956 "Plat Personnages Bleu et Jaune," a painted ceramic plate.

"We're almost like a free museum, but there's a risk to that," Weinstein said. "My hope is that we can look at our security and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Picasso did many works titled "Tête de Femme," and women were a favorite subject of the artist. Sharon Flescher, an art historian who heads the International Foundation for Art Research, a nonprofit that deals with issues of art authenticity, said Picasso remained vital and creative until his death in 1973.

Now, she said, "Picasso is one of the artists whose works are most stolen and most faked. That's because of the name recognition of Picasso - everyone has heard of Picasso."

The drawing, though, will not be easy to sell, Flescher said.

"Once the publicity is out about this, it will be very difficult to market a stolen work by Picasso or anyone else who is well-known," she said. "The legitimate collectors won't touch it. If you're going to spend a certain amount of money, it behooves you to do some research into the ownership history of the work that's offered."

At another gallery, Montgomery Gallery in San Francisco, director of European art Lindsay Nivens-Frosini said "security and a vigilant eye" keep such high-dollar thefts a rarity in the city.

Last year, the gallery received an alert through a cooperative of local dealers that a painting had been stolen from a private collection. Sure enough, a few days later, a woman came in to try to sell the painting, Nivens-Frosini said, prompting a call to the police and an arrest.

Weinstein agreed that the Picasso piece will be hard to sell, but added, "My greatest fear is that, with all this attention on it, the person will realize it's unsellable and will dispose of it in a less-than-proper manner."

Police said witnesses described the Picasso thief as a white man about 6 feet tall, age 30 to 35, wearing a dark jacket, a white shirt, dark pants, large dark glasses and loafers with no socks.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at (415) 575-4444 or send a text message to TIP411. Callers may remain anonymous.