[mairdie]

A situation none of us are likely to get into.

[abigkahuna]

Ah yes, the quickest route to Switzerland is the sea route! Any school boy knows that...

[PTBAA]

Did he own it or did the government?

If he owns it then he should be free to sell it, or burn it, if he wants to.

[Moonman62]

IIRC, Picasso didn’t take himself too seriously.

Now over a 100 years later we see craziness like this.

[Gene Eric]

Meanwhile, Europe happily imports the Islamic assassins of Western Culture.

GTH, Europe. You’re weak, devoid of character, and effectively worthless.

[xxqqzz]

Pretty weird. You can’t sell a painting abroad? Wouldn’t that be good for Spain’s balance of payments? The payment is only like 100 years old.

[Vendome]

[Sirius Lee]

"Let me pay my bail with this. *scribble scribble* It's a Picasso!"

[a fool in paradise]

Spain doesn’t own the painting. It isn’t hundreds of years old.

Meanwhile international corporations are permitted to extend the US’s copyright laws and own our cultural heritage of the 20th century that should’ve expired into the public domain.

[BobL]

Looks like a pretty crappy painting to me. Why the fuss?

[GreenLanternCorps]

Ironically, if he had just bought a truck, and driven it out of Spain, through France and into Switzerland he would not have been caught.

Due to the Schengen Agreement, there are no customs or border controls between Spain and France anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

He got caught because he moved it by a yacht and that triggered the port inspection that caught him.

The Spanish French highway border:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4645596,2.865582,3a,15y,349.8h,87.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shq66MZK2vorXAQE0C77wSg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3669686,2.4562585,3a,75y,290.72h,76.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sW_tHPyT6POQX7kMhQPqZ-A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.4447544,1.9426673,3a,27.4y,64.56h,85t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0tFK6AEvEHLHpdK9KKhXuQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656