THE RETURN OF DORA MAAR

The re-appearance of a long-lost art treasure used to have collectors jumping for joy, but nowadays, such events are often accompanied by scepticism.

Frauds are a dime a dozen and can have experts show themselves up as being less than reliable identifiers of the real McCoy. Recently, and remarkably, a reputed art investigator in Amsterdam, called Arthur Brand, obtained a hitherto missing Picasso masterpiece which he immediately surrendered to insurance proprietors—Portrait of Dora Maar.

It turned out to be the real Mccoy. This uber-famous painting was created in 1938 by Pablo Picasso and is now worth $28 million. This is one painting of several that Picasso did of Dora. She featured in a number of 'weeping woman' portraits of 1930's and 1940's.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand had been trying to locate the portrait for years. This painting of Dora Maar, lady friend of the great painter, was stolen from a yacht belonging to billionaire Sheikh Abdul Mohsen in 1999, and entirely disappeared from sight. But according to Mr Brand, the painting is safe once more. Apparently from out of the blue, the dogged art detective was approached by sources, “with good contacts in the underworld”, who told him where the painting was. It seems the painting was part of a deal conducted by a businessman who received the painting as payment for a transaction.

Brand claims that he and his contacts devised a plan to get the painting back. Further, the businessman in possession of the painting appeared flummoxed as to what to do with it. Eventually the painting, wrapped in two rubbish bags, appeared on Brand’s Amsterdam property. “They delivered it right to my door,” he says. Probably work by Picasso has been pinched more times than any other work by any other artist on earth.

As of 2012, over a thousand paintings by Pablo were registered as either stolen, missing or disputed, (meaning that they could have been faked.) In real terms that’s a lot of collateral. But it only proves that Mr Brand, also known as the ‘Indiana Jones of the art world’, has quite a lot of pull. Brand also seems unconcerned about any reward saying that it should go to the people who brought the masterpiece to light. Brand’s reward was to have a Picasso on his wall for one night. He claims that the experience was ‘Great!’ Respects to Mr Brand who is one of the art world's true heroes.

To see some work of the great master artist Pablo Picasso visit: https://www.pablopicasso.org/