«The police sat me down at the table and for three hours they asked me how I got home.»he recalled Doloresa 68-year-old Peruvian goalkeeper, in conversation with the Spanish media.
One day like any other, when she was returning from a kiosk, Dolores found a packaged package in the hallway of the Chamartín building, in Madrid, where she lives with her husband. Armando. Since no one claimed it, he picked it up and put it safe in the goal.
A little more than two weeks later, the Spanish National Police knocked on their door and subjected them to an eternal interrogation: What was in the package was a Pablo Picasso worth 600 thousand euros.
Faced with suspicions that they were involved in international art trafficking or European criminal networks, Dolores told them the truth: she believed it was a mirror. “What would we know?”he sentenced.
Police believed it was a case of international art trafficking
Those who went to the police on October 6 were the organizers of an art exhibition from Granada who were to receive 56 works from Madrid.
The transfer of the paintings was recorded, but the packages were not numbered so it was difficult for them to know which piece they were missing, Peru21 reported.
🇪🇸🇵🇪 | “The police sat me down at the table and for three hours they asked me how the painting had gotten to my house,” recalls Dolores, the Peruvian caretaker who kept a Picasso thinking it was a mirror in Spain. «I no longer pick up a package from anyone»
pic.twitter.com/cqcTtsHlzs— Alerta News 24 (@AlertNews24) November 2, 2025
On the 10th of that month, a formal complaint was filed and the Historical Heritage Brigade of the police.
Finally, the scientific police discovered that It was all a logistical error resulting from an oversight on two sides.: from the transporters, who forgot it in the hallway, and from those who did the security check of the transfer because they did not number the packages.
The painting by the Spanish painter is “Still life with guitar” and is valued at more than 600,000 euros. It was to be transferred from the Spanish capital to Granada, but as it never left its destination it raised suspicions that it was a case of art theft.
The work, measuring 12.7 by 9.8 centimeters and dated 1919, was verified and returned to its owners without any damage. The transport company acknowledged its responsibility.
The 600 thousand euro Picasso that they forgot in the building. Photo: RTVE capture“I feel happy” of having saved the painting, Dolores acknowledged in a note with RTVE in which she acknowledged that when she found out the value of the package she was shocked that the work was within reach of anyone, since during all the time she spent there they came and went «like hot dogs around her house.»
