diff --git a/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml b/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml
index 4e29144f8..1f3b4e7c7 100644
--- a/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml
+++ b/src/documentation/content/xdocs/status.xml
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 
     <changes>
         <release version="3.8-beta5" date="2011-??-??">
+           <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">51974 - Avoid HWPF issue when identifying the picture type</action>
            <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">52035 - Fix signed issue with very large word 6 files</action>
            <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">51949 - Avoid NPE on double close of ZipFileZipEntrySource</action>
            <action dev="poi-developers" type="fix">51950 - XWPF fix for footnotes not always being present in a document</action>
diff --git a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Picture.java b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Picture.java
index 555beb7b1..06e84a4f1 100644
--- a/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Picture.java
+++ b/src/scratchpad/src/org/apache/poi/hwpf/usermodel/Picture.java
@@ -432,7 +432,9 @@ public final class Picture
      */
     public byte[] getRawContent()
     {
-        if ( _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords().size() != 1 )
+        if ( _picfAndOfficeArtData == null ||
+           	 _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords()== null || 
+           	 _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords().size() != 1 )
             return new byte[0];
 
         EscherRecord escherRecord = _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords().get(
@@ -516,7 +518,9 @@ public final class Picture
 
     public PictureType suggestPictureType()
     {
-        if ( _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords().size() != 1 )
+        if ( _picfAndOfficeArtData == null ||
+        	 _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords()== null || 
+        	 _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords().size() != 1 )
             return PictureType.UNKNOWN;
 
         EscherRecord escherRecord = _picfAndOfficeArtData.getBlipRecords().get(