The Police recover a painting by Francis Bacon valued at five million stolen in Madrid in 2015 | Culture

New twist to the most important theft of contemporary art that occurred in Spain. The Heritage Brigade of the National Police has located one of the two portraits that Francis Bacon (Dublin, 1909-Madrid, 1992) painted of his partner, a work valued at five million euros that still remained to be recovered. The robbery occurred in 2015 at José Capelo’s home, in Plaza de la Encarnación, next to the Senate, in one of the safest areas of Madrid. The thieves took five portraits that the Irish painter had given to his friend as an inheritance from him and that decorated his master bedroom. The oil paintings are valued at 30 million euros.

The recovery of the painting has been possible after the arrest last February of two people responsible for receiving the two stolen paintings that remained to be located. Thanks to these arrests and the collaboration of one of the detainees, the agents have managed to find the portrait in a building in Madrid, according to police sources consulted by this newspaper. The detainees maintained contacts with criminal groups and gangs in Eastern Europe. The investigation remains open to the search for the fifth portrait that remains missing, although researchers have hopes of recovering it and closing the circle of investigations that have lasted more than nine years.

The police have been able to verify that it is one of the stolen paintings since it corresponds to the photographs provided by its owner. On the back of the oil painting the following information is written: “Study for a portrait of José Capelo, Francis Bacon, 1989.” The Irish painter used to sign behind the frame of his works.

The gang that carried out the robbery in 2015 was made up of a diverse cast of people, including an art dealer, bartenders and jewelers from the Madrid Rastro and an Uber driver. Since then, the five paintings have passed through different hands in failed attempts to sell them. Desperate attempts that have provided clues to the agents to locate the works with the help of one of those involved and a judicial agreement that facilitated the discovery of the first three works.

Since the investigation began, 16 people allegedly involved in the robbery have been arrested, including both the plotters and the material authors, including the alleged mastermind of the plot, Cristóbal García, an art dealer, who denies his involvement in the case despite the fact that a note with José Capelo’s home address was found in his house. The hard core of the group fell into police networks in 2016. Despite the evidence obtained against all the members of The gang, especially the alleged mastermind, were only convicted of the crime of reception since it could not be proven that they were the authors of the material theft of the works.

The protagonists of the theft attempted to sell the works in Spain on at least two occasions without success. The first time, in September 2015, just two months after the theft occurred. The attempt was carried out by Ricardo Barbastro, 46, one of the detainees. He called a cousin of his who worked at an art gallery and offered him the paintings. They hadn’t spoken for 17 years. Several of the detainees attended the meeting. The gallery owner rejected the offer. “Everything seemed very strange to me,” he told the police.

The second failed attempt was during a meeting held in February 2016 at number four Duque de Alba Street in Majadahonda, a modern three-story house located a few meters from the main promenade of this Madrid town, as confirmed by the police investigation. and describes the judicial summary to which EL PAÍS had access.