Picasso Resurrected
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist who dominated the 20th century with his talent, was recently resurrected from a trunk within a garage of the French Riviera.
71 Year-old Pierre Le Guennec, Picasso’s former electrician, had 271 undocumented works he claims Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque, gave him and his wife, Danielle, as a gift. Why would Picasso's ex-wife bestow such an omnibus of talent to the fellow who changed his light bulbs? That’s what Claude, Picasso’s son, would like to discover.
Claude Picasso was quoted in the French Daily Liberation, “To give away such a large quantity, that's unheard-of. It doesn't hold water. This was part of his life.”
An offering worth approximately $79.35 million today is moderately peculiar. The collection is that of watercolors, portraits, sketches, lithographs and nine Cubist collages (Picasso was co-creator of Cubism).
Are the works dating from 1900 to 1932 bonafide pieces? They are believed to be. The Le Guennecs approached the Picasso Administration in order to have the trunk stored works authenticated, after first revealing them to Claude. The administrator’s verdict was clear. They are indeed genuine.
In the beginning of October, police retrieved the artwork and it is now in the hands of France’s agency in charge of battling the illegal traffic of cultural items. A lawsuit is in the works for illegal possession of the works.
Why did the couple wait so long to share this information? It seems Pierre Le Guennec had undergone a high-priced cancer treatment procedure. Danielle Le Guennec states the couple “didn't want to leave any headaches to our children.”
The odds certainly were not in the couple’s favor when they rolled the dice under these conditions....
Follow Technorati