From Balkan Insight, March 23:
Bulgaria Lays Claim to Mystery Pollock Artwork Found in Raid
Minister says unnamed Jackson Pollock painting, seemingly dedicated to Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall and once owned by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, should remain in Bulgaria after being found in a police raid.
Bulgaria’s interim Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev has said an unnamed Jackson Pollock deemed to be an original and found during a police raid on March 21 should remain in the country.
“There’s a high chance of the painting remaining permanently in Bulgaria, since it was found here and will do everything that is in our capacity for this to be done,” he said on TV on Thursday.
Authorities had been alerted that the important and undeclared artwork was about to be sold to third parties.
Initially, the Sofia Prosecution said the painting has been in the country for several months and was worth an estimated 50 million euros. Demerdzhiev estimates the value as even higher.The minister confirmed that the painting was part of Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu’s collection, possibly given to him by a diplomat, and that at some point, it was trafficked to Greece and then to Bulgaria.
But there’s also a mysterious backstory, as on the back a handwritten note reads: “Dedicated to my very talented and dear friend Lauren Bacall. Happy Birthday”, dated September 16, 1949....
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