New Jersey Man Arrested In San Francisco Picasso Theft
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS13) – San Francisco police have arrested a New Jersey man in the theft of a valuable pencil drawing by Pablo Picasso which has also been recovered.
Police identified the suspect as 31-year-old Mark Lugo. Lugo was taken into custody on Wednesday at a hotel in Napa.
The Picasso, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, was taken from the Weinstein Gallery near Union Square on July 5.
The thief walked into the gallery, grabbed the artwork and fled in a waiting taxi cab. Investigators were able to locate cab driver and impounded the cab to search for evidence. They then were able to identify Lugo as the suspect and found him at the Napa hotel.
The gallery says the one-of-a-kind Picasso drawing titled "Tete de Femme" is worth $275,000.
Lugo is facing charges of burglary, grand theft, possession of stolen property and several drug charges. He's being held on $5 million bail.
