Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ Found Intact in Melbourne

Picasso’s missing oil painting, “Weeping Woman,” was found undamaged in a railway station locker Tuesday, 17 days after self-styled “cultural terrorists” stole the masterpiece and threatened to destroy it.

The thieves had demanded a ransom in the form of increased government funding for the arts. The government did not increase arts funding.

Police said officers discovered the small painting, measuring 22 inches by 18 inches and valued at $1.2 million, after an anonymous telephone call to a Melbourne newspaper said it could be found in locker No. 227 at the Spencer Street Station.

It was wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string, officials said.

Officers gingerly carried it to a police forensic laboratory, where National Gallery director Patrick McCaughey confirmed that it was the masterpiece and said it appeared undamaged. It had vanished from the National Gallery’s second-floor European section after closing time Aug. 2.

A police spokesman said a note was left in the locker with the painting, but he refused to disclose its contents.

Pablo Picasso, who died in 1973, painted the masterpiece in 1937 during the same period of his most famous work, “Guernica.” The “Weeping Woman” depicts the stylized profile of a woman in anguish.