A stolen Picasso worth millions of dollars was shipped to the U.S. in a package that described it as a $37 "art craft" — but it will soon be on its way back to France.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed papers Thursday to forfeit the century-old cubist painting, which was swiped from a museum storeroom in 2001. "A lost treasure has been found," U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
The canvas, titled "La Coiffeuse," was bequeathed to France's National Museum and was placed in storage at the Centre Georges Pompidou, where staffers discovered it was missing when they received a loan request for it.
It was shipped by Federal Express from Belgium in December and seized at the Port of Newark. Officials said shipper was identified only as "Robert" and the destination was a climate-controlled storage facility in Queens. Court papers did not indicate whether the sender or intended recipient have been identified.
IN-DEPTH
— Tracy Connor