Picasso’s widow hid art works from son
Print Edition
A retired electrician who kept nearly 300 Pablo Picasso artworks in his garage for almost 40 years told a French appeal court yesterday that the artist’s widow wanted to keep the works hidden from his son Claude.
“Mrs Jacqueline Picasso had problems with Claude Picasso,” Pierre Le Guennec, convicted last year of possessing stolen goods, told the court in a trembling voice.
A few months after Picasso died in April 1973, “she asked me to store garbage bags at my home,” the 77-year-old defendant told the court in Aix-en-Provence, saying there were between 15 and 17 bags.
Some time afterward, Le Guennec said that Jacqueline Picasso retrieved the bags but gave him one of them.
The collection, whose value has not been assessed, includes drawings of women and horses, nine very rare Cubist collages from the time Picasso was working with fellow French artist Georges Braque and a work from his “blue period.”
The unsigned works, which had not been inventoried, were created between 1900 and 1932.
The authorities seized the works and handed them over to Picasso’s son Claude Ruiz-Picasso, who represents the six heirs.
Le Guennec, who is appealing his conviction along with his wife Danielle, had previously testified that the couple received the works in 1971 or 1972 when Picasso was still alive.
Their lawyer Eric Dupont Moretti said he had learned this version of events only a few days ago.
Le Guennec said he did not reveal the truth before for “fear of being accused along with madame of having stolen these bags.”
The couple were given two-year suspended prison terms for possessing stolen goods by a court in nearby Grasse in March 2015.
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