Turkish Police Seize Stolen Picassos

Police detained four men, including the nephew and driver of a Turkish lawmaker, after they allegedly tried to sell two stolen paintings by Pablo Picasso to undercover officers, media reported Sunday. The seizures raised to eight the number paintings believed to be by Picasso recovered in Turkey over the past year. They are believed to have been stolen from a Kuwaiti palace during the 1991 Gulf War and smuggled to Turkey from Iraq. Istanbul police detained the nephew and the driver of Mustafa Bayram, a member of parliament from the eastern city of Van, on Saturday after his nephew allegedly agreed to sell the paintings to the undercover officers for $1.5 million each, the Anatolia news agency reported, citing police sources. Police would not confirm the detentions and Bayram could not be reached for comment. Bayram was in a car outside the house where his nephew negotiated the sale. Police were going to arrest him, but refrained after he identified himself as a legislator, Anatolia and Milliyet said. Lawmakers in Turkey are immune from prosecution. One of the paintings seized Saturday was of a clown and the other a naked woman.They both bore the stamp of a Paris gallery, Anatolia reported. The gallery could have sold the paintings to a Kuwaiti buyer. Police plan to show the paintings to experts on Monday to see if they are originals by the Spanish master, it added.