A scrap dealer found a painting in the basement. Experts say it is the original Picasso painting

CNN
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A painting discovered by a scrap dealer in the basement of an Italian villa six decades ago is actually the work of Pablo Picasso and could be sold for millions, experts said.

Luigi Lo Russo used to spend his days combing abandoned houses and landfills looking for treasure to sell at the family pawn shop in Pompeii, Italy.

In 1962, a rolled-up canvas bearing an asymmetrical image of a woman was found in the basement of a villa on the nearby island of Capri.

The painting is now believed to be a distorted portrait of the French photographer and poet Dora Maar, who was Picasso’s lover, according to Luca Gentile-Canale-Marcante, an art expert and honorary president of the Swiss-based art restoration nonprofit Arcadia Foundation.

The oil on canvas painting shows Picasso’s asymmetrical style of a woman wearing a blue dress with red lipstick.

At just 24 years old, he didn’t appreciate that the signature in the upper left corner of the artwork that simply read “Picasso” meant anything, his son Andrea Lo Russo told CNN on Tuesday.

The elder Lou Russo, who died in 2021, had it cheaply framed and given to his wife, much to her dismay, his son said.

She didn’t think it was pretty enough to sell, so it hung in the family home for about 50 years and later in a restaurant they owned.

“When my mother hung it on the wall to decorate the house, renaming it ‘Scribble’ because of the strangeness of the woman’s face depicted, I wasn’t even born yet,” Andrea Lo Russo said.

“From my father’s stories I know that two canvases were recovered from the Capri dump site. However, Picasso only signed one. They were both covered in dirt and lime, and my mother would spread them out and wash them with detergent, as if they were carpets.

In the 1980s, when Andrea Lo Russo was in elementary school, he saw Picasso’s “Buste de femme Dora Maar” in an art history textbook and learned that the Spanish painter had spent time on Capri in the 1950s.

He then told his parents that the painting might be valuable.

Thus began a decades-long journey to verify the authenticity of the signature on the artwork.

The family said they contacted art historians, many of whom told them it was not original, but offered to remove it from their hands.

Suspicious, they registered it with the Italian Heritage Police, who initially thought it might be stolen, but since it was not certified at the time, allowed the family to keep it.

The artwork has been kept in a vault in Milan since 2019. Finally, last month, Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist at the Milan Heritage Court, was able to authenticate Picasso’s signature.

Altieri worked on the painting for several months, comparing it to other works by Picasso and conducting forensic tests to confirm that it was signed at around the same time it was painted.

“There is no doubt that the signature belongs to him,” she said in a statement to local Italian media on Monday. “There was no evidence to prove its fabricated nature.”

Art expert Marcant, who has worked with the Le Russo family, told CNN he is confident the painting is authentic.

The Le Roussos painting is likely to be worth around 6 million euros ($6.6 million), according to valuations by Altieri and Marchant, based on the current art market.

If it is authenticated by the Picasso Foundation in Paris, it becomes even more valuable.

Andrea Lo Russo said: “I am happy but let’s wait for his toast. There is still one step to take before we consider this amazing story over.”

“I continue to work as I do every day in the hope that even in Paris they will be convinced of the authenticity of the painting.”

CNN has contacted the Picasso Foundation for comment.

Le Russo and his brothers say that when the Picasso Foundation finally recognizes the painting, which could double its value, they will auction it off in honor of their father, who wanted the painting approved and sold.