Luigi Lo Rosso’s wife hated the painting (Image: Jam Press)
A dusty old painting found in a bric-a-brac dealer’s basement has turned out to be an original Picasso worth at least £5million.
Luigi Lo Rosso discovered the artwork – believed to have been painted between 1930 and 1936 – in the cellar of his home in Capri, , in 1962. But after he moved to Pompeii, he hung it up in his sitting room. This is despite the fact that his wife hated it.
It wasn’t until many years later that Luigi’s son Andrea, after reading a book on art history, realised that the signature looked suspiciously like an original Picasso.
Andrea told the Guardian: “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.
Luigi Lo Rosso found the artwork while clearing out a cellar (Image: Jam Press/Andrea Lo Rosso)
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“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 says his dad didn’t realise what he had: “He found the painting before I was even born and he didn’t have a clue who Picasso was. He wasn’t a very cultured person.”
Andrea, now 60, recalls that his mum would regularly describe the painting as “horrible.” It’s believed to represent Picasso’s mistress and muse Dora Maar, who had a turbulent relationship with the painter between 1935 and 1945.
Luigi Lo Rosso’s wife with the ‘Picasso’ (Image: Jam Press/Andrea Lo Rosso)
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Picasso, who died in 1973, produced more than 14,000 works (Image: Getty Images)
Picasso painted several portraits of Maar, the best known of which is his 1937 masterpiece The Weeping Woman. When asked about his portraits of her, she said “all portraits of me are lies. They’re Picassos. Not one is Dora Maar”.
Andrea has reached out to the Picasso Foundation in Malaga, Spain and is expecting the institute’s experts to confirm the painting’s authenticity in the coming weeks. In the meantime, it’s being stored in a secure vault in Milan.
“I am curious to know what they say,” Andrea said. “We were just a normal family, and the aim has always been to establish the truth. We’re not interested in making money out of it.”