Epress.am News from Armenia
A New Jersey man who has worked in high-end restaurants in New York City flew to San Francisco on the Fourth of July, walked into a Union Square gallery the next day and stole a Pablo Picasso pencil drawing (not pictured) from the wall, police said Thursday in announcing his arrest, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Mark Lugo, 30, who lives in Hoboken, NJ, had Picasso’s “Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman)” ready for shipment when San Francisco police arrested him at 9:30 pm Wednesday at an apartment complex in Napa, where he was visiting friends, police said.
The 1965 sketch by the Spanish artist was in Lugo’s room there, missing the frame that had held it at the Weinstein Gallery on Geary Street but otherwise undamaged, Police Chief Greg Suhr said.
Police believe Lugo was working alone and had planned to ship the artwork, which the gallery was selling for more than $200,000, to an unknown party. In the meantime, said police Lt. Ed Santos, “he was enjoying an evening with friends.”
“He had it very nicely and professionally boxed up,” said Rowland Weinstein, who owns the gallery where the piece was stolen and viewed it Thursday. “If the police had waited just another day, it would have been in a FedEx box somewhere.”