Landlord Makes Shocking Discovery in Filthy Apartment

A Milwaukee property owner got the shock of a lifetime when he discovered that a dusty piece of artwork hanging in a back bedroom was actually a stolen Picasso that had been missing for eight years.

Timothy Dertz said he was cleaning out a vacant property in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood following an eviction when he noticed the artwork tucked away in an unusual spot.

“It was in a back bedroom behind a door,” Dertz told WISN. “A very odd placement for such a piece of art. I guess we know why now.”

At first, there was little reason to suspect the piece had a dramatic past. Dertz said it appeared to have been sitting there for years, collecting dust.

“It was in a weird spot kind of hanging on a wall, and it looked like it had been there a long, long time because it had collected tons of dust across the top of it,” he said.

The stunning discovery came after Dertz brought in an antiques expert to examine belongings left behind by the former tenant. The expert spotted the Picasso, prompting Dertz to do some digging of his own.

That online search quickly turned an ordinary property cleanup into a bizarre art-world mystery.

Dertz discovered that the etching had reportedly been stolen from a Milwaukee art gallery eight years earlier.

The artwork is one of just 30 prints and bears the signature of legendary Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, making the discovery considerably more valuable — and complicated — than Dertz originally imagined.

Rather than try to keep or sell the piece, Dertz turned it over to Milwaukee police.

Authorities confirmed Friday that the case remains under investigation.

Police told WISN that the statute of limitations for theft and property crimes is generally six years, potentially complicating any effort to bring charges connected to the original disappearance.

For Dertz, what started as a routine cleanup ended with a piece of stolen art history literally coming out from behind a door — after apparently hiding in plain sight for years.