Stolen Picasso Drawing No Longer Off the Hook

The man who stole a Picasso drawing from a San Francisco art gallery last summer has completed his jail sentence and is awaiting extradition to New York.

But what about the drawing that Marc Lugo grabbed?

It’s hard to steal anything these days without winding up the subject of a worldwide manhunt conducted over the Internet. And ever since the Picasso thief-in-loafers (no socks) made international headlines by starring in a security video that showed him strolling out of an art gallery with the sketch casually tucked under his arm, people from around the world have been stopping by just to see the empty spot on the wall.

But yesterday, the hook got its Picasso back.

“Behind here, this is now bolted into the wall,” said Roland Weinstein, the owner of the gallery on Union Square.”

And with a little extra security; he has since hired a guard and put in cameras.

“I was calling the district attorney kind of on a weekly basis wondering when we were going to get it back, it’s just really exciting to have it back and to be putting it on the wall.”

After spending months in an evidence locker, Tete de Femme or “head of a woman” looks as good as new: abstract, lopsided and lovely. It had been for sale before the theft, but now Weinstein says he’s not planning on letting her go.