Overview
- A landlord clearing a vacated, evicted apartment discovered a dust-covered framed print and asked an antiquities dealer to check it, leading police to contact gallery owner Bill DeLind who identified the work as the Picasso etching Torero.
- Torero is a signed aquatint from an edition of roughly 30 known copies and still bore DeLind Fine Art Appraisals’ sticker on the back, which helped confirm the print’s identity.
- The etching was stolen from DeLind’s Milwaukee gallery in 2018 and was appraised at $35,000–$50,000 at that time, with DeLind saying the recovery could push its market value toward the higher end.
- The Milwaukee Police Department has the print in custody as investigators examine provenance and chain of custody; police say the theft case remains open even though Wisconsin’s theft statute of limitations is generally six years.
- Next steps include insurer and provenance checks before final disposition, and the recovery highlights how evictions and informal discoveries often surface long-missing art and affect owners’ insurance and legal claims.