US returns $15 million Picasso painting stolen from France

Pablo Picasso's "La Coiffeuse," seen in a protective plastic cover, is displayed at the French Embassy in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned the stolen painting, valued at $15 million, that was stolen in 1998 and was seized in December 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Pablo Picasso's "La Coiffeuse," seen in a protective plastic cover, is displayed at the French Embassy in Washington, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned the stolen painting, valued at $15 million, that was stolen in 1998 and was seized in December 2014. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

By Associated Press August 13, 2015 1 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. government has formally returned a painting by Pablo Picasso valued at $15 million that had been stolen from a Paris museum more than a decade ago and seized by immigration officials late last year in New Jersey.

The director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sarah Saldaña, officially repatriated the artwork, titled “The Hairdresser,” during a ceremony Thursday at the French Embassy in Washington.

The painting was on its way from Belgium to the New York borough of Queens when it was identified and seized in Newark, New Jersey, last December.

Officials say the package aroused suspicion because it was heading for a climate-controlled storage facility. That seemed to be a peculiar destination for a package carrying French words suggesting that it contained a $37 Christmas gift.