A Picasso painting hung unrecognized in the living room of an Italian scrap metal dealer for 60 years.
Photo: SOCIAL NETWORKS.
A rag picker from Pompeii – that is, from its modern part – kept a painting that he liked in his living room for six decades, without knowing that it was painted by Pablo Picasso.
In the early 1960s, an aspiring scrap metal dealer from Luigi Lo Rosso undertook another assignment that did not promise significant profits to clear a ruined villa, an “abandoned place,” on the island of Capri of scrap metal.
As a rule, new owners settle for people like Luigi, who don’t need their junk, and they themselves determine whether what they have found has any value.
From that trip, the young Neapolitan brought back a folded canvas found in the basement. The painting depicted a woman in a “broken” manner, and in the upper left corner there was a signature: “Picasso.” Seeing some resemblance to his wife, Luigi gave the painting to his wife, who framed it and hung it in the living room.
Picasso’s signature did not cause any stir among the newlyweds, nor among their family and friends; none of them simply knew of the existence of the world-famous artist.
Years later, Andrea, the ragpicker’s eldest son, was the first to notice the autograph. The boy saw illustrations in a school textbook that resembled the picture in the living room. Dreaming that they had a priceless work of art in their house, the teenager told his parents who Picasso was.
But the father and mother simply said goodbye to their son: how is it possible that such a masterpiece ends up in a moldy basement?
The ragpicker’s children sent the canvas for examination after his death in the early 2000s. Two decades of research into the chemical composition of the paintings, comparisons of the “woman” with Picasso’s works, and research by files. Over the years, as the canvas “file” was completed, it became increasingly clear that the “broken face” was nothing more than a portrait of Pablo’s lover and muse, the poetess and photographer French Dore Maar.
And in September 2024, the authenticity of the Pompeii Picasso was confirmed by the latest analysis carried out in Milan by Cinzia Altieri, a leading forensic graphologist and art historian. Verdict: “Picasso’s signature on the obverse of Buste de Femme, a portrait of Dora Maar, belongs to the master’s hand.”
After the news was published, the Lo Rosso family was bombarded with calls not only from friends with congratulations, but also from representatives of auction houses, which were already offering 6 million euros (almost 625 million rubles) for the work.
However, the last word goes to the representatives of the Picasso Foundation, which is chaired by the children of a genius from Malaga. From the beginning they doubted the authenticity of the portrait. However, taking into account the latest data and the fact that “Bust of a Dora Maar Woman” has already appeared in the official auction catalogues, they have no other option. And with the seal of the Foundation, the cost of the masterpiece hanging on the wall of a hall in Pompeii will reach 12 million euros (1.25 billion rubles).
Luigi’s descendants have not yet decided how to dispose of their wealth. They only regret one thing: according to the now deceased head of the family, there were two paintings in the basement of that villa, but he only took one.
