Australia’s greatest unsolved art heist: Picasso’s Weeping Woman

The year was 1986, I was five and a half years old, living in the small mining town of Norseman in Western Australia. One August morning, I came across The West Australian newspaper on our dining room table. It featured a striking image on the front page that immediately caught my eye. It was Picasso’s Weeping Woman—sharp angles, anguishing sadness, and a suffering so raw it seemed to spill off the page.

But what truly fascinated me wasn’t just the painting itself—it was the story. Picasso’s 1937 work had been purchased just the year before for A$1.6 million, and it had now been stolen from the National Gallery of Victoria in what would become Australia’s most infamous unsolved art heist.

And then there was the ransom note. The thief—or thieves—hadn’t asked for money.