Belgian police have discovered two paintings by Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso in the basement of a home in Antwerp, 14 years after they were stolen from an art collector in Tel Aviv.
The paintings – a cubist work by Picasso titled “Tête” and Chagall’s “L’homme en prière” which depicts a man praying - are valued together at $900,000 (£710,000) and were recovered in good condition, according to local authorities on Tuesday. The artworks were stolen in 2010 from an Israeli villa belonging to the Herzikovich family. $680,000 worth of jewellery was also stolen from a safe. Only the paintings have been recovered.
Belgian police finally had a breakthrough when, in late 2022, they were tipped off that an art dealer in the Walloon capital of Namur had put the paintings up for sale.
Authorities tracked the movements of their suspect, a 68-year-old Israeli luxury watcher dealer, for several months until last week, when federal police raided the man’s home, where they discovered a significant amount of money but neither of the stolen paintings.
