Guggenheim Sues to Recover Picasso Stolen in 1961

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation has filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court to recover a Picasso painting stolen in 1961. The work, "Femme dans un fauteuil" (1918), was reported missing on February 6, 1961, from the University of Pittsburgh's Students Union building, where it was on loan for an exhibition. The painting, valued at $10,000 to $60,000 at the time, is now believed to be worth millions. The Guggenheim learned of its reappearance in July 2023 when a Christie's researcher flagged it during a private sale consignment. The museum demanded its return in August 2023, but the current possessors, Lawrence Jay Handler and Wendy Cohen Handler of Massachusetts, refused. The Handlers purchased the painting from Beadleston Fine Art in Manhattan in 1999. The lawsuit accuses them of unlawfully withholding the painting and unjustly benefiting from stolen property. The Guggenheim seeks $3.5 million in compensatory damages and a declaratory judgment. The museum also repaid a $7,000 insurance payment from Chubb to restore its title. The case echoes a precedent-setting 1980s lawsuit over a stolen Chagall gouache, which established New York's protection of rightful owners even against good-faith buyers. The painting was created while Picasso honeymooned with his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, near Biarritz, and was acquired by Solomon R. Guggenheim from London's Gallery Zwemmer in 1936.