Jackpot: Painting That Junk Dealer Picked Up In 1962 Is A Picasso Creation, Worth Rs 55 Cr!

Rome: Italian junk dealer Luigi Lo Rosso’s family will soon be millionaires as the junk dealer had picked up Picasso’s painting, worth millions, from a cleaning space in 1962.

According to a report in The Guardian, when the junk dealer found the painting, he wasn’t aware that it was a creation by the renowned Pablo Picasso.

Despite his wife’s wish to discard it, the junk dealer retained the painting, bound in a cheap frame.

Years later, Italian experts have claimed it is an original Picasso painting worth Rs 55.98 crore in Indian currency.

Lo Rosso’s son Andrea, who studied the encyclopaedia of art history, reached out to a team of experts, including well-known art detective Maurizio Seracini, to know about the painting.

The painting bears Picasso’s signature on the top left corner, as confirmed by Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist and member of the scientific committee of Arcadia Foundation.

It is believed that the painting is a distorted image of Picasso’s mistress and muse Dora Maar. According to reports, the painting is believed to have been produced between 1930 and 1936.

“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing. He found the painting before I was even born and didn’t have a clue who Picasso was. He wasn’t a very cultured person. While reading about Picasso’s works in the encyclopaedia I would look up at the painting and compare it to his signature. I kept telling my father it was similar, but he didn’t understand. But as I grew up, I kept wondering,” Andrea was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Picasso is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. His works include Guernica, the Spanish Civil War, proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, and many more.