Police investigating an international art smuggling scheme discovered a previously unknown work by famed abstract painter Jackson Pollock in Bulgaria, officials said.
Experts estimated the painting — which was signed by the late American artist — to be worth as much as $54 million, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
Bulgarian officials believe the artwork is an original uncatalogued piece by the world-renowned painter from 1949. Pollock died seven years later at 44 years old. No further details were provided about the painting.
“To our great joy, we managed to establish and keep this painting and at the moment the expertise shows that it is an original,” said Petar Todorov, Bulgaria’s chief secretary of the ministry of internal affairs, according to the Novinite news agency.
Pollock was a part of the Abstract Expressionism art movement during the late 1940s. His radical approach to painting known as the “drip and splash” method, in which he poured, dripped and splashed paint from above onto his pieces, revolutionized the form and paved the way for contemporary art.
As a result of the art smuggling investigation, police arrested one Bulgarian citizen as well as three Greek citizens. The probe also focused on Athens and the island of Crete, according to BNR.
Five paintings from other prominent artists were confiscated from Greece during the raids.
With Post wires
