About 407 works of art by Pablo Picasso are missing, says the artist's step-daughter Catherine Hutin-Blay. She suspects a former handyman stole the artworks from her home between 2005 and 2007.

Two years ago, works from Hutin-Blay's collection began to appear on the art market. Hutin-Blay then checked file cabinets where her trove of Picasso's sketches, watercolors and sanguines were kept only to find many were missing.

Hutin-Blay, 65, inherited the Picasso works from her mother, the artist's second wife Jacqueline, in 1986. She lives at Chateau de Vauvenargues near Aix en Provence in the south of France, where Picasso and Jacqueline resided and are buried.

An investigation of the theft is ongoing. A conservative value of 1 million to 2 million euros has been placed on the missing works.