Fascinating Story of a 72-year-old Woman Who Stole Jacket From Picasso Museum

She didn’t only steal jacket on display but got it altered to fit her.

On the 7th of March, 2022, an unexpected incident occurred at the Musée Picasso or The Picasso museum in Paris, where the culprit was a senior citizen.

Well, this is not the first time this kind of incident has happened at an art museum, as throughout history, we have many reported robbery and theft incidents at museums.

A couple of the most infamous ones are the theft of the Mona Lisa painting in 1911 and the heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

However, in recent years and especially after these unfortunate incidents, the security at the museums has been tightened a lot.

Still, this 72-year-old lady managed to get the jacket out of the museum and even got it altered — just keep in mind this is 2022 we are talking about.

In this article, we will try to go into some details of this unwanted drama and learn a bit about the significance of Picasso’s jacket.

The Importance of Blue

The period between 1901 and 1904 was also known as The Blue Period to define the work of Pablo Picasso.

During this period, Picasso only used shades of blue and bluish-green and only used warm colours occasionally.

The use of blue was deliberate, and Picasso preferred using these cold and deep blue colours in his paintings during the blue period.

Since these colours signified despair and misery, the shades of blue intensified the desperateness and hopelessness in his paintings, the paintings in which he was trying to depict a prostitute or a beggar, an actor with no work, the blind or the circus people.

Picasso portrayed himself and his friends in the same blue shades. These were the days when he and his friends were all kinds of disadvantaged.

Finally, Mr Pablo Picasso even wore deep blue colours during this period. I hope this has clarified much about the importance of the jacket.

This blue jacket, in particular, was Picasso’s work jacket. One can imagine a Spanish guy living in France can’t come down on his fashion, and who knows how many pieces of art Picasso has painted while wearing this jacket.

The Jacket Was Loaned As An Art To The Museum

The jacket, which is in the dark blue, is placed next to the large black and white photograph of Picasso and its pockets are filled with postcards set there to show some of the artwork that Pablo Picasso made.

The exhibit was designed to be very interactive so that the visitors could quickly examine the jacket and have that special fan moment with the coat of their favourite painter.

The jacket was loaned to the museum by the owner of Oriol Villanova, and this was not the first time.

Villanova said, before loaning the jacket to Musée Picasso, he had loaned it to many other museums.

The museum’s security guaranteed protection at all these other museums, and they even insured the artwork.

He further stated that if he knew the guard at the Musée Picasso would be so incompetent, he would have never loaned the jacket to them.

The museum denied Villanova’s claims and said he was aware of the risk involved in presenting the jacket in a relaxed and interactive way.

The museum even insisted on Installing a more secure hook for the jacket, but the artist refused and said the whole concept would diminish.

Furthermore, it was written in their agreement that these items are not insurable because of their interactive nature and risk of being stolen.

Anyway, it is up to you guys to decide which one you think is the right side of the story. To make things clear, the jacket is back on the same hook. However, the postcards which were placed in it are lost forever.

The Incident Itself

The news of the stolen jacket was first published in the local newspaper of Paris, which spread across France like wildfire.

At first, it was hard to believe that the person who stole the artwork was only 72 years old.

The elderly lady who stole the jacket said that she assumed that someone accidentally left the jacket hanging on the wall, and secondly, she just liked the colour and the look of it.

Even when the idea of the exhibit was an interactive one, and to be honest, it was nothing less than a blessing for the die-hard fans of Picasso, to be able to feel something that was used personally by your idol is a feeling no one can express in words, anyway!

Moving on, the lady took this fan moment to the last level where she just stole it and even altered it to her size.

The museum security caught the lady on surveillance cameras while stuffing the jacket in her bag; however, it was tough to recognize her due to the quality of the picture.

Later, the police got involved and started investigating the museum and CCTV footage, ultimately reaching the culprit.

The old lady told the police she was too passionate about the artwork and had been previously placed under guardianship.

The lady was given a warning and left alone after the artwork was recovered.

Now you might be wondering what happened to the jacket that got its sleeves shortened. Well, the coat was restored and returned to Oriol Villanova. Hopefully, he will think twice before loaning any of his artwork.

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