PARIS – A retired French couple have come forward with 271 undocumented, never-before-seen works by Pablo Picasso estimated to be worth at least €59 million.
Electrician Pierre Le Guennec, who once worked for Picasso, squirrelled away the staggering trove – believed to be authentic – inside a trunk in the garage of their home on the Riviera.
The cache, dating from the artist’s most creative period from 1900 to 1932, includes lithographs, portraits, watercolours and sketches – plus nine Cubist collages, said to be worth €47 million alone.
Mr Le Guennec (71) and his wife showed many of the works to Picasso’s son Claude and other estate administrators in Paris in September, seeking to have the works authenticated.
Shortly after that meeting, Picasso administration lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer took legal action on behalf of Picasso’s heirs for alleged illegal receipt of the works. Police investigators are looking into how Mr Le Guennec and his wife, Danielle, came by the pictures.
“This was a gift,” Ms Le Guennec said from their home in the town of Mouans-Sartoux, near the tourist hotspot of Antibes. “We aren’t thieves. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
She said the couple decided to come forward with the works this year because they were getting on in years and “didn’t want to leave any headaches to our children” with their own estate. Her husband had undergone a cancer treatment operation in March.
The works, which were kept in a trunk, did not appear to be much to her untrained eye, “but even if this was a little jot of the pencil, it did come from the master. These aren’t tableaus like the ones sold in America.”
Claude Picasso told the Liberation newspaper that his father was known for his generosity but that he always dedicated, dated and signed his gifts, as he knew that some recipients might try to sell the works one day.
“To give away such a large quantity, that’s unheard-of, it doesn’t hold water,” he said. “This was part of his life.” Ms Le Guennec said the couple did not intend to sell the art.
To some, the emergence of the works by the 20th century’s most renowned artist is akin to opening a time capsule. “Claude Picasso was astounded. He couldn’t believe his eyes,” said Mr Neuer. – (AP)