If you are mulling to hire a professional cleaner for your home, you must take note of the things you are planning to dump, the paintings at least, for all that does not glitter may also be gold! Luigi Lo Rosso, a junk dealer, may have been living in a small house in Italy’s Pompei, but the walls of his living room held an unbelievably expensive painting for decades.
The painting was picked up by Rosso in 1962 from a home in Capri, while he was cleaning the space. Years later, it was found that the painting was indeed an original one by Pablo Picasso, costing Rs 55,98,21,232.92 in the Indian currency in the present day, The Guardian reported Italian experts as claiming.
Rosso found the painting dumped at the home where he was working. He looked at it and took the rolled-up canvas home in Pompei. Despite his wife’s reluctance to keep the painting, which she often described as “horrible”, fate forced the dealer to keep it at his home, somehow.
The painting bore the signature of Picasso on the top left corner. However, the family did not know who he was. Unsure of what to do with it, Rosso placed the painting in a cheap frame on the wall of his living room, where it hung for the next few decades.
Years down the line, Rosso’s son Andrea studied the encyclopedia of art history, co-incidentally given to him by his aunt. As he dwelled deep into the subject, he started questioning his father about the painting in their home.
Pursuing his quest to discover the artist behind the painting, even after his father Rosso died, Andrea reached out to many people who may have known about it.
Eventually, his family sought the advice of a team of experts, including a well-known art detective, Maurizio Seracini.
After years of complex investigations, Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist and member of the scientific committee of the Arcadia Foundation, which deals with the valuations, restorations and attributions of artworks, confirmed that the signature on the painting was Picasso’s. Altieri also said the painting is today valued at €6m (£5m).
The report stated Andrea said there were moments when the family considered getting rid of the painting, as his mother did not like it.
After knowing of the price of the original painting, Andrea said he contacted the Picasso Foundation in Málaga several times, but he said it had shown no interest in examining his claims, believing them to be false.
The family now believes the painting is a distorted image of Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter, who was Picasso’s mistress and muse, the report stated.
The foundation has the ultimate word on the authenticity of the painting, now stashed in a vault in Milan.
As per the report, the painting is believed to have been produced between 1930 and 1936.
Luca Marcante, president of the Arcadia Foundation, will now present the evidence to the Picasso Foundation, it stated.
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