Episode 26: A Picasso in a Drug Bust & JR's Pont Neuf Cavern

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Show Notes:

In this episode, Zahra opens with a headline that sounds like clickbait: a Picasso recovered during a drug raid in Paris. It's not clickbait. That discovery pulls her into a world of art heists she never knew existed — including one of the biggest in French history, a thief the art world nicknamed Spider-Man, and over 1,000 Picasso works that have simply vanished.

Meanwhile, Sami finally delivers the JR episode. It started with a lithograph in Toulon that he misidentified. Behind it was one of the most compelling careers in street art — from a Paris banlieue kid who found a camera in the Metro, to the most ambitious project of his life: turning Paris's oldest bridge into a walkthrough cave. Sami saw it from the river. It closed June 28th. He never made it inside.

Highlights:

A Picasso worth up to $20 million found in a drug raid — two weeks ago

Why Picasso is the most stolen artist in history

The 2010 Musée d'Art Moderne heist: five masterworks, no alarms, one very opportunistic thief

The "Spider-Man" of the art world and how a commissioned theft spiraled out of control

JR: from Paris suburbs to global street artist

How a camera found in the Metro changed everything

Face to Face (2007): Israeli and Palestinian portraits, side by side on the same wall