A small and valuable painting by Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla that vanished over the weekend has been recovered after a man told police he had mistaken it for junk but rescued it because he liked the frame. Andrés Hurtado, 57, found the work on a Seville street last Saturday. He was captivated by its handsome gold frame, not the subject matter of two boats off a beach.
Discovery and Misunderstanding
Hurtado did not realize the painting was by Sorolla, a late 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish artist renowned for his mastery of light and beach scenes. Nor did he know the painting belonged to a Seville family who had owned it for many years and habitually took it on holiday. They had intended to pack it into the boot of their car but accidentally left it leaning against a wall and drove off.
By the time they realized what had happened, the painting was gone. They put up posters appealing for information to help locate “a painting of great sentimental value,” carefully avoiding any mention of Sorolla or the picture’s value, until Tuesday.
Research and Realization
Hurtado, who lives 325 miles (525km) away in Murcia, had found the painting while in Seville with his family for the weekend and assumed someone had thrown it out. “We picked it up because of the frame, not because of the painting,” he told Radio Sevilla on Wednesday. After taking it back to Murcia, he researched the picture using AI and learned it could be a Sorolla. “The AI came up with some crazy prices, so I looked online and called an auction house in Madrid,” Hurtado told El Mundo. “I sent them pictures and they came back to me very quickly, saying it was an original Sorolla.”
The painting is valued at up to €150,000 (£130,000). But his time with it was short-lived. When news reached him of the “stolen” painting, complete with a picture supplied by the owners, he knew what he had to do. “I rang the police straight away and told them the news wasn’t true,” he told the paper. “I told them I hadn’t stolen it but just picked it up in the street.”
Return and Aftermath
Police have now returned the painting to the family in Seville, who have promised Hurtado a “small present” by way of thanks. “They told me there was a lot of traffic [on Saturday] and that all the other cars were beeping at them,” he said. “They got anxious and left the painting leaning against the wall.”
It was not the first time in recent months that a valuable Spanish work of art had suffered a transport hiccup. In October last year, police searched for a small Picasso still life worth €600,000 that appeared to vanish while en route from Madrid to an exhibition in Granada. The painting was recovered three weeks later after police discovered it had never left Madrid and had been inadvertently scooped up by one of its owner’s neighbours who had mistaken it for a forgotten delivery and taken it in for safekeeping.
