ROME: Italian police have seized a 15-million-euro ($16m) Picasso and a precious Roman statue they suspect were about to be smuggled out of the country, media reports said on Friday.

The Picasso was described as being a 1912 work from the Spanish artist’s Cubist period.

The Roman statue dated from the second or third century and had an estimated value of eight million euros.

It was said to be particularly rare, both in terms of its form and state of preservation. Two similar examples can be found in the British Museum and a Vatican museum.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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