Landlord Cleaning Out Trashed Apartment Stumbles Across Long-Lost Famous Painting—’Do You Know What That Is?’
One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Milwaukee landlord Tim Dertz entered a cat-urine soaked apartment littered with empty pizza boxes to clean it out after a tenant eviction. He’d lost $15,000 renting the apartment to the previous occupant and hoped he could recoup part of that loss by finding something valuable hidden in the trash. So, he contacted antiques dealer Chad Strack to take a look and see if there might be anything of value there.
According to The Washington Post, the men found something not only of value, but rather shocking — a famous painting that had been missing for approximately eight years. While looking at the black and white print they discovered hanging on the bedroom wall, Strack asked Dertz, “Do you know what that is? That’s a Picasso.”
It wasn’t just any Picasso, though. The print, titled “Torero,” had gone missing from an art gallery in 2018, and until now, its whereabouts had remained a mystery.
The Case of the Missing ‘Torero’
According to Art Loss Register, a database that tracks missing art pieces, Picasso is the artist with the most works stolen — 1,147 in total. The Picasso discovered by Dertz is a 1949 aquatint on rice paper depicting a figure with curly hair and sideburns and featuring Picasso’s signature in green pencil.
In 2018, the piece hung in William DeLind’s Milwaukee art gallery. Until one afternoon, he and his partner noticed that it had vanished. Neither knew where it had gone, but every year since then, DeLind has alerted local media on the anniversary of its disappearance in hopes it would be returned. But nothing ever came from it. Then, the police called to inform him that it had been found.
DeLind, who had largely given up hope of ever seeing the piece again, told The Washington Post, “You never expect to see something that is stolen back again.” When the Picasso actually resurfaced, he called it “a very personal affront when it was taken, and now it’s very personal coming back.”
All’s Well That Ends Well
Dertz spent a night panicking over having a legitimate Picasso in his possession before contacting the police the morning after his discovery. He took the art piece to the station, and let the cops handle the rest. They then returned the piece to DeLind.
Technically, insurers own the painting at this point, and investigators are on the hunt for the artwork’s rightful owner. However, DeLind hopes he can hang the piece on the walls of his appraisal shop for at least a month or so so others can see it.
Meanwhile, the police commended Dertz for doing the right thing and turning the art piece in to the authorities. While there was, at one point, a $10,000 reward being offered for the Picasso’s return, Dertz said he hadn’t been contacted about any potential payout. He isn’t particularly concerned, though. Even if he never sees a dime of that reward, Dertz told The Washington Post he’ll settle for having a story to tell.
As for how and why the painting disappeared and ended up in this random apartment in the first place, that remains unknown.
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