Picasso piece valued at $85K stolen from Art Miami fair

The doors opened to Art Miami fairgoers on Friday morning, but all they saw at David Smith's booth was an empty stretch of wall, with a label still in place reading, "Signed, numbered & Stamped with silver marks."

The Picasso plate was gone.

A thief or group of thieves made off with a small, silver plate created by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso from the Art Miami fair sometime after the event space closed on Thursday night. Valued around $85,000, the plate, entitled Visage aux Mains, was crafted in 1956. While police have no video surveillance footage to use, Smith remains hopeful the piece will someday be reclaimed.

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"If you steal art, if it's from a famous artist, it's going to be hard to re-sell," he told The Miami Herald. "Either somebody steals it for himself to keep, or somebody, somewhere, someday will realize it's stolen."