Investigators are examining a work of art to establish whether it is a Picasso snatched from a Dutch museum in 2012.

The painting, Picasso’s Tete d’Arlequin (Harlequin’s Head) was stolen six years ago in a haul of seven valuable artworks from the Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam.

The Romanian prosecutor in Bucharest said on Sunday that officials were examining a painting that a novelist said she found under a tree after receiving an anonymous tip. The work, purported to be the stolen Picasso, was given to the Dutch embassy in Romania on Saturday.

Four Romanians were convicted of stealing Tete d’Arlequin and the other paintings in 2013. One of the thieves, Olga Dogaru, said she had burnt the paintings in her stove to protect her son, the alleged leader of the 2012 heist. She later retracted the statement.

The 2012 heist lasted just three minutes, and was labelled the “theft of the century” by Dutch media. As crowds wandered around the Rotterdam museum, the emergency exit doors burst open and three men rushed in. They grabbed the seven paintings by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Gauguin, and Lucian Freud from the walls. The artworks – estimated at the time to be worth up to €200m (£160m) – had been on loan to the museum.

Security camera footage showed the gang entering through a back door of the museum and disappearing from view. Seconds later, they reappeared carrying bulky objects.

Public prosecutor Augustin Lazăr confirmed to AFP that Romanian authorities were in possession of a painting that might be one of those stolen from the Kunsthal, adding it needs further examination.

“Anti-organized crime prosecutors are investigating the circumstances under which a painting signed by Picasso worth roughly €800,000 ($913,440) was found on Saturday evening in Tulcea county,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

They said two Dutch citizens arrived at the Netherlands embassy in Bucharest with the painting, saying they had found it in the south-eastern Romanian county. A Dutch foreign affairs ministry spokesperson said the painting’s authenticity must now be established.

Four Romanians were jailed for the heist in 2014, and ordered to pay €18m to the paintings’ insurers.



While the gang were arrested in 2013, none of the artworks were recovered, and Romanian experts believed at least three of them had been burned in an attempt to destroy evidence.

The other stolen works were Matisse’s La Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune, Monet’s Waterloo Bridge, London and Charing Cross Bridge, London, Gauguin’s Femme Devant une Fenêtre Ouverte, Meijer De Haan’s Autoportrait and Lucian Freud’s Woman with Eyes Closed.