A Sorolla Painting Left on a Seville Sidewalk Was Taken by a Tourist

On June 27, at around five in the evening, a Seville family was getting ready to go on vacation. On Calle Rafael González Abreu, in the very heart of the city's historic centre, they were loading their belongings into the car. Among the items was a small painting by Joaquín Sorolla, which the owner traditionally took with him on every trip. For a few minutes, the canvas was leaned against the garage door. When they came back for it, the painting was already gone.

The painting was set in a wooden frame with a white mat. It depicted two boats. Its main distinctive feature is that it was dedicated by the artist himself to the family that owns it, and it retained Sorolla's original signature. The canvas had been kept in the family for decades and, according to the owners, has "enormous sentimental value."

According to experts, the painting may belong to the so-called "colour notes" — quick studies of light and landscape that the artist painted as preparatory works. With such an attribution, its value at auction could range from 30,000 to 60,000 euros.

The family filed a report with the police and put up notices in Spanish and English. The police examined surveillance-camera footage, which showed several people picking the painting up from the sidewalk. The police's main hypothesis was that tourists passing by saw the abandoned painting and decided to take it, not realising that it belonged to someone and what its true value was.

The suspicions were confirmed. It turned out that the painting had been taken by Andrés from Murcia, who was spending his vacation in Seville. "I took it because I liked the frame, not the painting itself. I picked it up and carried it to my room," he said on Radio Sevilla.

However, at home, he photographed his find and identified the painting through an artificial-intelligence app on his phone. "I used AI to figure out what it was, and that's when I realised it's a good painting!" Then Andrés saw a news report about the missing painting and immediately called the police.