A Junk Dealer Discovered a ‘Horrible’ Painting in a Cellar 60 Years Ago. It Might Be a $6.6 Million Picasso

A painting that hung in an Italian family’s home for decades may be an authentic Pablo Picasso.

Junk dealer Luigi Lo Rosso discovered the canvas in 1962 while rummaging through a villa’s basement on the island of Capri. It was rolled up—and it had Picasso’s signature in the top left corner.

“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing,” Luigi’s son, Andrea Lo Rosso, tells the Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida. “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 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 understand. But as I grew up, I kept wondering.”

He adds, “My mother didn’t want to keep it—she kept saying it was horrible.”

In the 1980s, Andrea noticed another Picasso, Buste de femme Dora Maar, in an art history textbook that looked very similar to the image on his family’s wall, according to CNN’s Barbie Latza Nadeau. He also learned that Picasso often visited Capri.

The Lo Rossos think their painting is a depiction of Dora Maar, a French Surrealist who was also romantically involved with Picasso. If the piece is legitimate, Picasso likely created it between 1930 and 1936, per the Guardian.

In the past, art historians have told the family that the artwork wasn’t authentic. Sometimes, those same individuals have offered to purchase it anyway, which made the Lo Rossos suspicious. The family eventually registered the work with Italy’s patrimony police.

Now, the piece is finally getting the recognition that Andrea always believed it deserved. Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist at the Arcadia Foundation, which authenticates and evaluates artworks, recently examined the painting and concluded that it is legitimate. She thinks it’s worth around $6.6 million.

“There is no doubt that the signature is his,” Altieri tells local Italian media, per CNN. “There was no evidence to demonstrate its apocryphal nature.”

The family is hopeful that experts at the Picasso Foundation in Paris will also verify the authenticity of the painting, which is currently in a vault in Milan. If they do, the piece’s value could go up even more, according to Il Giorno’s Mauro Cerri.

Luigi Lo Rosso died in 2021. However, Andrea, who is now 60, is content knowing the painting is no longer in the shadows and may soon have official recognition.

“I am curious to know what [experts at the Picasso Foundation] say,” Andrea tells 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.”

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.