An old painting, described by its owner’s wife as ‘horrible’ for decades has turned out to be a Picasso worth £5,000,000.
Luigi Lo Rosso found the artwork while clearing out a cellar in a home. The painting features the Spanish artist’s distinctive signature in the top left-hand corner, but Luigi failed to recognise it.
He made the discovery at his house in Capri, Italy, in 1962, but rolled up the painting and placed it in a cheap frame that he hung on his living room wall at his new home in Pompeii for decades, much to the annoyance of his wife.
Many years later, his son, Andrea, who was studying an encyclopedia of art history gifted to him by an aunt, suspected it held the famous artist’s signature.
The family sought the advice of several local experts, including renowned art detective, Maurizio Seracini.
Following months of investigations, graphologist, Cinzia Altieri, a member of the scientific committee of the Arcadia Foundation, confirmed the signature was indeed Pablo Picasso’s.
She said there is ‘no doubt the signature is his’ and that the painting is an original.
The artwork, believed to have been painted between 1930 and 1936, has since been valued at around £5,000,000.
The portrait is believed to be a distorted image of the French photographer and painter, Dora Maar, who was Picasso’s mistress until their breakup in 1945.
Luigi passed away before the painting was authenticated, but his son vowed to continue his mission.
Now, Andrea, 60, said: ‘My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing. He found the painting before I was even born and he didn’t have a clue who Picasso was.
‘He wasn’t a very cultured person. While reading about Picasso’s works in the encyclopedia, I would look up at the painting and compare it to his signature.
‘I kept telling my father it was similar, but he didn’t see it. As I grew up, I kept wondering. My mother didn’t want to keep it, she kept saying it was horrible.’
The painting is currently being kept in a vault in Milan as the family reaches out to the Picasso Foundation in Malaga, Spain, who will have the final word on its authenticity.
Picasso produced over 14,000 works before his death in 1973.
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