Within minutes of a vandal spray painting a Pablo Picasso painting, Houston museum officials had rushed the valuable artwork into their onsite conservation lab as if it was an injured patient in need of emergency surgery.

“I think that’s a dramatic analogy, but I think that’s apt,’’ said Vance Muse, a spokesman for the Menil Collection, which owns the more than 80-year-old painting.

The fast action increased the odds of saving the painting, Muse said. The museum’s chief conservator has been working on it tirelessly since it was damaged June 13, and the restoration is going very well, he added.

The act of vandalism was caught in a 24-second video posted on YouTube. It shows a man dressed in black holding a stencil up to the work of art and then spray-painting the stencil before ripping it away and walking off. An image of a bullfighter, a bull and the word “conquista,’’ which is Spanish for conquest, is left behind.

Once the man walks away, the person taking the video walks up to the painting, recording the damage. This, plus the fact that the witness happened to film the vandal at the moment he damaged the painting, has some speculating whether the two were working together.

“People have wondered if this YouTube (video) was shot by a bystander who just happened to be there at that moment or if it’s more akin to perpetrators, plural,’’ Muse said. “I just don’t know. But I hope we find out.’’

Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said investigators are reviewing both surveillance video from the museum and the video posted on YouTube. When asked if police think the vandal and witness were working together, she said, “We’re taking all the information and we’re looking at all aspects of the incident.’’

She would not say whether police have spoken to the witness who shot the video.