Painting in France

Pablo Picasso’s Head of a Young Woman, not allowed to leave Spain, was found on a boat in Corsica, French authorities have said. Photograph: AFP

A Picasso worth €25m (£17.5m/US$27.4 million) and considered a cultural treasure by Spanish authorities who had barred it from being exported has been seized from a boat docked at Corsica, according to French authorities.

An attempt to export the painting, Head of a Young Woman, to Switzerland on Thursday “drew the attention of French officials”, the country’s customs authority said in a statement, with customs agents on the French island boarding the vessel the following day.

The ship’s captain could only present two documents regarding the work of art, the statement said – one of which was a May 2015 Spanish court judgement labelling the painting a work of art and ordering that it not be taken out of the country.

The painting, which French customs said was valued at “more than €25m euros”, is owned by Jaime Botin, a well-known Spanish banker whose family was involved in the Santander banking group. The 79-year-old, who was formerly the banking giant’s vice-chairman, was not on board the vessel, which was owned by the company and flying a British flag, a customs authority spokesman said.

According to the spokesman the export demand was also not in Botin’s name.

An export demand was filed for the painting in December 2012 to move it to London but was opposed by Spain’s culture minister.

In 2015 a Spanish court sided with the authorities and declared the work of art “unexportable” on the grounds that it was of “cultural interest” and could not leave the country.