Teams from Erzurum\u2019s Provincial Gendarmerie Command said they learned the painting was being brought to Erzurum from Turkey\u2019s eastern province of Van in an attempt to sell it for $5 million.<\/p>\n
Gendarmes stopped a car carrying three suspects, later identified only by their initials — A.D., I.A. and S.K. The trio was arrested at Erzurum\u2019s Horasan district.<\/p>\n
Apart from the unconfirmed Picasso — which was reportedly stolen from Iraq\u2019s State Museum — three ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic manuscripts were also seized, the gendarmerie said.<\/p>\n
According to initial inspections, the painting carries a Picasso signature on the front, dated 1939. The rear side of the painting — a portrait of a smiling young man — carries seals and information claiming the painting belongs to the famous Spanish artist.<\/p>\n
The Turkish authorities have stored the painting to further investigate its authenticity with representatives from Erzurum\u2019s main museum and Ataturk University\u2019s History of Art Department.<\/p>\n
Last year Turkish media reported that Turkish police seized another famous painting by the great Spanish artist in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
However, the Paris-based Picasso Administration later said the seized artwork was a fake and the original — entitled \u201cWomen Dressing Her Hair\u201d — was in New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, five suspects, including a police officer and a retired police chief, were arrested while trying to sell another \u2018Picasso\u2019 painting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A painting purported to be by Pablo Picasso was seized in Turkey\u2019s eastern province of Erzurum on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,173],"tags":[36153],"class_list":["post-58693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-turkey-headlines","tag-picasso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}