The French pensioner noticed the overalls hanging on a wall in the Picasso Museum and assumed they had been forgotten by another visitor.

She took them and tried them on, found that they were too big and asked her tailor to shorten them.

Just a few days later, the pensioner returned to the museum and was placed under arrest on suspicion of art theft.

French police informed her that the overalls were actually a contemporary work by the esteemed Spanish artist, Oriol Vilanova.

The pensioner confessed to the theft but said she had no idea she had taken an artwork, The Times reports.

Police recovered the overalls from her home but found that they had become 30cm shorter after the visit to the tailor.

Prosecutors decided against charging the pensioner, who was let off with a warning.