MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish police said on Thursday they had recovered a stolen painting by Irish artist Francis Bacon, which was among five works by the painter stolen in 2015 from a house in Madrid, with an estimated total value at 25 million euros.
The “Study for the Portrait of José Capelo” from 1989, with an estimated value of 5 million euros, is the fourth painting to have been found.
In February, police arrested two people accused of receiving stolen works of art in the Spanish capital, leading them to discover the painting in a Madrid property.
Since the start of the investigation, sixteen people suspected of having organized and carried out the theft have been arrested, the police said in a press release.
Three of the paintings were found in 2017.
Police continue to investigate Spanish citizens linked to organized groups in Eastern Europe in order to find the missing painting.
According to local media, the paintings were stolen from the apartment of José Capelo, Francis Bacon’s friend and former lover, information that the police did not wish to confirm or deny.
Francis Bacon, born in Dublin and died in Madrid in 1992, was one of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th century, known for his disturbing vision of the human body. Since his death, his reputation has continued to grow, as has the value of his works on the art market.
(Reporting Emma Pinedo and Miguel Gutierrez; French version Stéphanie Hamel, editing by Kate Entringer)
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