Picasso painting stolen from Saudi sheikh's yacht found 20 years later

Twenty years ago, a Picasso masterpiece was stolen from the yacht of a Saudi billionaire. Thanks to an art detective, the $28-million painting has been recovered. 

The 1938 painting entitled Portrait of Dora Maar disappeared from the yacht of Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Abdulmalik Al-Sheikh in 1999. The painting was believed to be taken from Coral Island while the yacht was being renovated in the French southern coastal town of Antibes.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand - who has earned the nickname "the Indiana Jones of the art world" - recovered the painting four years after a thorough investigation was launched into the case. According to CNN, Brand took initiative after hearing that a stolen Picasso painting emerged in the Netherlands in 2015. 

Ten days ago, "two intermediaries [turned] up at Brand's apartment ... with the missing painting in hand," as reported by CNN.

"They had the Picasso, now valued at 25 million euros, wrapped in a sheet and black rubbish bags, with them," Brand told AFP.

"I hung the Picasso on my wall for a night, thereby making my apartment one of the most expensive in Amsterdam for a day."

A Picasso expert verified the painting's authenticity at a highly secured warehouse in Amsterdam. It's since been handed over to an insurance company, and its fate has not yet been decided.

The painting was hung inside Picasso's home until his death in 1973. 

In 2016, Brand made international headlines after he recovered several masterpieces from the 20th century that were stolen from a Dutch museum in 2009.

The paintings included Salvador Dali's Adolescence (1941) and Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka's La Musicienne (1929). 

The recovery of the artworks came after nine months of negotiations with two criminal gangs who were in possession of them.