A man discovered an old painting in his home that turned out to be a Pablo Picasso worth roughly $6.6 million (£5 million) — hidden away for decades all because his mother hated it.
Andrea Lo Rosso said his dad Luigi, who worked as a junk dealer, was cleaning out a cellar in a house in Capri, Italy, in 1962 when he came across a piece of the artwork.
“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing,” Lo Rosso’s son Andrea, now 60, said.
But despite the distinctive signature in the top left-hand corner, Lo Rosso somehow didn’t realize the Spanish painter was famous.
“He found the painting before I was even born and he didn’t have a clue who Picasso was,” he said. “He wasn’t a very cultured person.”
“My mother didn’t want to keep it, she kept saying it was horrible,” he added.
Even though Luigi’s wife found the painting to be hideous, he put it in a cheap frame and displayed it on the living room wall at his home in Pompeii and kept it up for decades.
Andrea suspected it was a true Picasso, but after many years, he finally decided to work on verifying the Spanish painter’s signature.
“While reading about Picasso’s works in the encyclopedia, 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 see it,” Andrea shared.
He added, “As I grew up, I kept wondering.”
Seeking out the help and guidance of several local experts, including renowned art detective Maurizio Seracini, the family endured several months of investigations into the painting — until eventually graphologist Cinzia Altieri, a member of the scientific committee of the Arcadia Foundation, confirmed the signature was Picasso’s.
She told the family that there was “no doubt the signature is his” and that it was an original Picasso painting, according to the Guardian.
It’s believed that the artwork was painted between 1930 and 1936 and that it’s a portrait of Picasso’s mistress, French photographer and painter Dora Maar, who was connected to the painter until their breakup in 1945.
Before Picasso died in 1973, he produced over 14,000 pieces of work.
Though Luigi passed away before the painting was authenticated, Andrea has promised to continue to try to do so.
The Picasso Foundation in Malaga, Spain, will have the final say on the authenticity of the painting, but until then, it’s currently in a vault in Milan.
“I am curious to know what they say,” Lo Rosso told the Guardian. “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.”
