An Italian family is striving to authenticate a painting discovered decades ago on the island of Capri as a genuine work by the renowned Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.
The Lo Russo family has been gathering scientific evidence to substantiate their claim and is seeking confirmation from the Picasso estate regarding the artwork’s origin.
The painting was unearthed over 60 years ago by a man who stumbled upon it while sifting through waste as a scrap dealer. He displayed the piece in his home for many years before it was later hung in a restaurant in Pompeii, Italy.
Andrea Lo Russo, the man’s son, began investigating the painting after his mother referred to it as “ugly.” It wasn’t until he encountered a Picasso artwork in a textbook that he recognized the potential significance of the piece. As an adult, Lo Russo and his brother took the painting to Paris, where they presented it to experts at the Picasso Museum.
“They examined it and said, ‘It’s impossible,'” Lo Russo recalled. Despite this feedback, the brothers declined the museum’s offer to retain the painting for further examination.
Lo Russo’s pursuit of the painting’s provenance led him into encounters with unscrupulous individuals, resulting in instances of fraud. At one point, authorities even launched an investigation into his activities regarding potential trafficking in counterfeit art. However, the inquiry concluded after he provided documentation affirming his successful identification of the painting.
After more than two decades of research, Lo Russo is optimistic that recent tests conducted by the Arcadia Foundation in Switzerland have confirmed the painting’s authenticity as a work by Picasso. Founded in 2000 by trained chemist Luca Marchante, the Arcadia Foundation specializes in art analysis. Marchante stated that laboratory tests revealed the pigments used in the painting align with those employed by Picasso during various phases of his career.
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