Gallery missing work by Picasso

Keith Paul

Wednesday, July 5, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

Although it was not quite the same as shoplifting a pair of jeans from the Gap, the same principle was at work when someone walked off with a $3,000 work by Pablo Picasso from a Las Vegas art gallery.

"It was absolutely taken. Someone must have put it in a bag and walked out with it," said Barry Molinar, gallery administrator for the Centaur Sculpture Galleries in the Fashion Show mall.

The gallery spent two years collecting about 280 works by Picasso, which it has been showing for several weeks. On Monday workers noticed a print of an etching -- number 26 of a set of 66 -- was missing.

"We've had six people do a thorough search," Molinar said. "Without question the piece was stolen."

Many of the other etchings have been sold along with other Picasso works in the gallery.

While there were 350 prints made of each etching before the plate was defaced -- which is standard -- in two years of searching the gallery was able to put together only one complete set.

"Many are in museums and in private collections and will never be available," Molinar said.

Picasso created the etchings in 1971 -- about two years before his death on April 8, 1973.

The small etchings in 15 1/4-by-12 1/2-inch frames are the only Picasso works in the gallery small enough to be taken out in a shopping bag, Molinar said.

There are other Picasso works for sale in the gallery priced at as much as $75,000, but Molinar said, "Fortunately those are too heavy to lift."

Molinar filed a report with Metro Police Monday once the theft was detected, but he doesn't hold much hope of recovering the artwork.

"Many times works are stolen to order. I think that someone was in here and picked that particular work out," he said.

Thieves steal art when they already have a buyer for a specific work, Molinar said.