Italian experts claim that a painting found by an antique dealer while cleaning out the cellar of a house in Capri, which his wife regularly described as „horrible,” is an original portrait by Pablo Picasso. The painting is now valued at 6 million euros.
After discovering the painting in 1962, Luigi Lo Rosso took the canvas home to Pompeii, where he displayed it in a cheap frame on the living room wall for the next few decades, writes The Guardian.
The portrait, which the owners now believe to be a distorted image of Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter who was Picasso's partner and muse, bears the distinctive signature of the famous artist in the top left corner. However, Lo Rosso did not know who it was.
It was only much later, when his son Andrea began asking questions after studying an art history encyclopedia, that he began to suspect it was something important.
Eventually, the family sought the advice of a team of experts, including well-known art detective Maurizio Seracini.
After years of complex investigations, Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist and member of the scientific committee of the Arcadia Foundation, which deals with the evaluation, restoration, and attribution of artworks, confirmed that the signature on the painting belongs to Picasso.
"After all other examinations of the painting were completed, I was tasked with studying the signature," Altieri stated. "I worked on it for months, comparing it to some of his original works. There is no doubt that the signature is his. There was no evidence to suggest it is fake."
Picasso was a frequent visitor to the island of Capri in southern Italy, and the painting, which strikingly resembles Picasso's "Buste de femme (Dora Maar)," is believed to have been created between 1930 and 1936.
Picasso, who died in 1973, created over 14,000 works, and the foundation that manages them receives hundreds of messages daily from people claiming to own an original.
"Buste de femme (Dora Maar)" was painted in 1938 and stolen from a Saudi sheikh's yacht in 1999 before being found 20 years later.
Luca Marcante, the president of the Arcadia Foundation, believes there could be two versions of the work. "Both could be originals," he told the newspaper Il Giorno. "There are probably two portraits, not exactly the same, of the same subject painted by Picasso at two different moments. One thing is certain: the one found in Capri and now kept in a safe in Milan is authentic."
Marcante will now present the evidence to the Picasso Foundation.