Picasso Piece Stolen from Illegal Party Mansion
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NOVATO, Calif.) — A Pablo Picasso lithograph was among several high-priced items lifted from a vacant California mansion where 100 teens broke in and threw a party, police said.
The illegal party was thrown May 27 at a Novato, Calif., mansion owned by former Ukranian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko.
The next day, a caretaker noticed laptop computers, leather coats and silver candlesticks priced at $5,000 were missing from the 19,500-square-foot residence.
“They had gotten in and basically ransacked multiple rooms in the house,” Sgt. Eric Riddle of the Novato Police Department told the Marin Independent Journal.
The lithograph is worth an estimated $30,000.
The teens fled the home when police arrived. No arrests were made.
Lazarenko is currently serving a nine-year sentence in a California prison for money laundering, wire fraud and transporting stolen goods. The former prime minister was convicted in 2004 of stealing $114 million while in office.
Lazarenko owes Marin County $2 million in back taxes.
He is scheduled to be released on Nov. 1.
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