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What would you do if a dusty, rolled-up canvas in a dark basement turned out to be a masterpiece worth millions? For Luigi Lo Rosso, this became a reality.
Lo Rosso, a junk dealer, spent his days sifting through the clutter of abandoned houses and landfills, hoping to find valuables to sell in his family’s pawn shop in Pompeii, Italy, per CNN.
According to The Guardian, he stumbled across the painting in 1962 in the basement of a villa on Capri. The artwork, which hung in the Lo Russo family home for decades and was regularly ridiculed by his wife as ‘horrible,’ turned out to be an original Pablo Picasso, with its value potentially soaring past $6 million.
At just 24 years old, Lo Rosso didn’t think much of the ‘Picasso’ signature in the upper left corner, unaware of its true origin, his son Andrea told CNN. Lo Rosso, who passed away in 2021, placed the priceless piece of art in a cheap frame and gave it to his wife, per CNN.
His wife didn’t think it was pretty enough to sell, so they kept it in their living room and later in a restaurant they owned, according to CNN.
The asymmetrical painting is believed to be a distorted image of Picasso’s lover, French photographer and poet Dora Maar, according to Luca Gentile Canal Marcante, an art expert and honorary president of the Swiss-based art restoration non-profit Arcadia Foundation, per CNN.
“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,” per Smithsonian Magazine.
Picasso frequently visited the southern Italian island of Capri. The discovered painting is similar to Picasso’s Buste de Femme (Dora Maar), which is believed to have been created between 1930 and 1936, per The Guardian.
After Andrea began to have suspicions that this piece might be an original of the famous artist it began the long journey of authenticating the signature on the painting.
According to IMA Select, an insurance company, art authentication is the process of determining whether a piece of art is of genuine origin. This is done when there a doubts towards the authorship particularly if the piece is considered valuable.
“To authenticate a piece, experts will examine its physical characteristics, provenance, and style. If necessary, they may also utilize scientific testing methods such as X-ray fluorescence and radiocarbon dating,” per IMA Select.
The family said they contacted art historians and the Picasso Foundation in Málaga several times, but no one showed interest in examining the painting. Those who did respond claimed it wasn’t original and even offered to take it off the Lo Rosso family’s hands, per CNN.
Suspicious of these opinions, they registered the work with Italy’s patrimony police.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist at the Arcadia Foundation, which authenticates artwork, finally gave the painting the recognition it deserved. For months Altieri compared the work with other Picasso paintings and found it was authentic.
“There is no doubt that the signature is his,” she said in a statement to local Italian media Monday. “There was no evidence to demonstrate its apocryphal nature,” per CNN.
The painting owned by The Lo Rossos’ family is predicted to be worth around €6 million ($6.6 million), according to Altieri and Marcante’s assessments, based on the current art market.
According to CNN, if the painting is certified by the Picasso Foundation in Paris it will increase in value.
“I’m happy but let’s wait to toast, there is still one step to take before we consider this incredible story over,” Andrea Lo Rosso said, per CNN.
Picasso passed away in 1973, leaving behind over 14,000 pieces of work. The Picasso Foundation receives hundreds of inquiries each day from individuals claiming to possess one of his originals, per The Guardian.
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