Italian Family Aims to Prove Its Painting Is a Picasso

A family in Italy hopes to prove that a painting found long ago on the island of Capri is the work of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

The family has been gathering scientific evidence to support the claim. It wants officials of the Picasso estate to confirm Picasso as the painting's creator.

A man found the painting in a load of waste he took possession of as a junk dealer more than 60 years ago. He hung the picture in his home for a long time. Later, it hung in a restaurant in Pompei, Italy.

Then the man's son, Andrea Lo Russo, began to investigate the painting that, he said, his mother described as “ugly.”

He said he first came to think the painting was important after seeing a picture of a Picasso painting in a schoolbook. Later, as a young adult, Lo Russo and his brother took the painting to Paris. They showed it to experts at the Picasso Museum there.

“They looked, and they said, ‘it is not possible,'” Lo Russo remembered. The brothers refused the museum's offer to keep the painting for further study, he said.

Lo Russo said that his research into the painting's origin sometimes connected him with dishonest people. He said some people tricked him for money. One situation led officials to investigate him as a possible trafficker of false artwork.

That investigation ended after he produced paperwork confirming his effort to identify the family's painting.

After more than 20 years of trying, Lo Russo believes that recent tests carried out by the Swiss-based Arcadia Foundation prove that his painting is from Picasso.

Luca Marcante is a trained chemist who started the Arcadia Foundation in 2000 to investigate artwork. Marcante said laboratory tests show the paints used were like those Picasso used in one period of his career.

Most recently, a handwriting expert confirmed that the name written in the upper left corner of the painting is Picasso's handwriting, Marcante said.

For the art world, however, only one group can authenticate the painting as Picasso's work: the Picasso Administration in Paris. But, it has not answered a series of requests over the years.

Marcante said that he is preparing to share the most recent findings with them. He explains it this way: “You need to understand, they get dozens of inquiries every day from private people believing they have found a Picasso.”

The Picasso Administration chose not to speak to the Associated Press about the painting.

Tete du femme

Marcante said the painting is similar to Tete du femme, a 1949 painting that is believed to be a Picasso. It is part of a digital collection overseen by Sam Houston State University in Texas.

Adding to the mystery, Marcante said there is photographic evidence that Picasso visited the ruins of Pompeii in 1917. Marcante also said it is likely the artist visited Capri in the 1940s.

But expert Enrique Mallen doubts the painting is really Picasso's work. He said, “From what I know of studying Picasso for 30 years, he would never do an identical copy of his own work.”

The only record of Tete du femme is documentation from a 1967 book, which said the painting was in a private collection in Turin, Italy. Mallen said there is no other evidence of the painting.

Marcante called Tete du femme “a ghost painting, because no one has ever seen it.” He added, “The only real one is ours, that we have examined in a scientific manner...”

Lo Russo said that his family has not decided what to do with the painting if it is confirmed as a Picasso. Many people are asking about it now since news about the painting spread in recent weeks.

“We are confused ourselves,” he said.

I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

Colleen Barry reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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estate –n. property left by its owner after the owner dies, which is administered by people who are appointed by the owner to do so into the future

ugly –adj. offensive to the sight

origin –n. where something came from

authenticate –v. to go through a process to show that something is real or true legally or without a doubt

confused –adj. being perplexed or disconcerted