A painting that was discovered in a cellar in Capri more than 60 years ago by an Italian junk dealer could be an original work by Picasso, art experts have said.
Since it was found, the painting has been hanging in a cheap frame on the dealer's living room wall. Art experts are giving the current owners hope that the asymmetrical portrait of a woman could indeed be a genuine Picasso.
The newspaper Il Giorno reported on Friday that research by a team of experts from the Swiss-based Arcadia Foundation has apparently shown that the Picasso signature on the painting is genuine.
Luigi La Rosso, from Pompeii, was clearing out the cellar of a villa on the Mediterranean island of Capri in 1962 when he came across a rolled-up canvas. He took it with him and hung it up at home.
Lo Rosso's son Andrea told reporters that his mother hated the picture, which she described as hideous, and always wanted to get rido f it.
"My parents were simple people, they knew nothing about art," Il Giorno quoted him as saying. At some point, the son noticed the Picasso signature on the painting.
Together with his brother, he tried to verify the exact origin of the work and, according to his own account, went to Paris to present the painting at the Picasso Museum. However, the reaction there was cautious, and Lo Rosso took it back home with him.
However, he did not give up and commissioned experts to examine the work. Graphologist Cinzia Altieri from the Arcadia Foundation is now certain the signature is actually that of Pablo Picasso, who frequently visited Capri in the 1950s. —dpa
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