Overview
- A tourist, Andrés Hurtado, picked up a small signed painting left against a wall in Seville and took it home to Murcia after the owners accidentally left it while loading their car.
- At home he used an artificial intelligence tool to identify the work as possibly by Joaquín Sorolla and then sought a second opinion from an auction house.
- After the auction house assessment, Hurtado contacted authorities and the family and the painting was returned to its rightful owners, who thanked him and offered a small gift.
- Published estimates of the painting's auction value vary widely, roughly from €30,000 up to reports of €150,000, but no official market appraisal has been issued.
- Police must still carry out formal provenance checks and authentication, a key step for confirming attribution to Sorolla and for establishing a final valuation of the small study commonly called a nota de color.