A painting discovered by a junk dealer in 1962 is an original work by Pablo Picasso, Italian art experts have claimed. Luigi Lo Rosso found the work in Capri more than five decades ago and took it home to Pompei, where it hung on a wall.
In the top left-hand corner, the painting bears Picasso’s distinctive signature, but Lo Rosso was initially unaware of its significance and didn’t know the artist’s name at the time. According to The Guardian, it wasn’t until his son, Andrea—prompted by an art history encyclopedia from his aunt—began questioning its origins that the family grew suspicious. After extensive investigations led by art detective Maurizio Seracini and graphologist Cinzia Altieri from the Arcadia Foundation, it was confirmed that the signature was indeed Picasso’s. The experts valued the painting today at €6 million ($6.5 million), and The Arcadia Foundation will soon present its evidence to the Picasso Foundation.
“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing,” Andrea told The Guardian. “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.I kept telling my father it was similar, but he didn’t understand. But as I grew up, I kept wondering.”
The portrait is believed to depict artist Dora Maar, Picasso’s mistress and muse. The rediscovered work shares similarities with the artist’s famous Buste de Femme (Dora Maar) (1938). Experts now believe this work predates the famous portrait of Maar, produced between 1930 and 1936—a period when Picasso vacationed in Capri frequently.
Similarly, Buste de Femme (Dora Maar) was once lost. The painting was stolen from a yacht in 1999 and circulated in the Dutch underworld for 20 years. In 2019, the art detective Arthur Brand found the work and estimated its value to be $28 million.
The current auction record for Picasso’s work was established at Christie’s in 2015 when Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) (1955) fetched $179.37 million. Last year, Femme à la montre (1932) sold for $139.36 million, becoming the second most expensive work by Picasso to be sold at auction—and the most expensive work to be sold at auction in 2023.
