Wife hated painting

Basement find turns out to be a genuine Picasso

Pablo Picasso created more than 14,000 works during his lifetime - time and again, people believe they have discovered a genuine work of art by the artist, who died in 1973.

(Bild: APA/AFP)

A painting that a junk dealer discovered while clearing out the cellar of a house in Capri has turned out to be a real treasure: it is an original by Pablo Picasso, worth several million euros. The finder's wife hated the painting, which had been hanging in the living room for decades, and actually wanted to get rid of it. 

The junk dealer Luigi Lo Rosso came across the painting by chance while clearing out a cellar on the Italian island of Capri and took it home with him to Pompeii. There it hung for several decades in a cheap frame, and for a long time no one suspected the true value of the painting.

Wife thought the painting was "terrible"
Luigi's wife didn't like the painting at all, as their son Andrea told The Guardian: "My mother didn't want to keep it - she kept saying it was terrible." The family had often considered giving the painting away.

Son recognized Picasso's signature 
After his studies, Andrea already suspected that the portrait of a woman could be a great art treasure. He had received an art history encyclopaedia as a gift and had noticed the similarities to other works by the Spanish artist and their signatures. The family finally commissioned a team of experts to investigate Andrea's suspicions. 

The investigation took several years. Finally, the experts discovered that the signature on the painting was by Picasso. The estimated value of the artwork: around six million euros! The woman depicted is probably Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter who was Picasso's lover and muse.

Family not interested in money
Picasso was a frequent visitor to Capri - Luigi Lo Rosso came from the southern Italian island. "He found the painting before I was even born and had no idea who Picasso was," says the son. The now deceased did not want to know anything about his son's suggestion that the painting could be by this artist. But his son was determined to uncover the secret. "We were a normal family and our aim was always to find out the truth. We are not interested in making money out of it," explained Andrea Lo Rosso.