Painting found in basement by junk dealer is a Picasso

As a young man, Luigi Lo Rosso used to scour garbage dumps and abandoned homes in Italy for items to sell at his family's shop in Pompeii. In 1962, he was poking around the basement of a Capri villa when he came across a rolled-up canvas. It was an oil painting featuring a bizarre asymmetrical face on it. Apparently, the signature Picasso didn't have any meaning for Lo Rosso. Still, he brought it home, framed it, and gave it to his wife somewhat as a joke because it was so odd.

"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," reports CNN:

The painting is now believed to be a distorted image of French photographer and poet Dora Maar, who was Picasso's lover, according to Luca Gentile Canal Marcante, an art expert and honorary president of the Swiss-based art restoration non-profit Arcadia Foundation[…]

In the 1980s, when (Luigi's son) Andrea Lo Rosso was in grade school, he saw Picasso's "Buste de femme Dora Maar" in an art history textbook and learned that the Spanish painter spent time in Capri in the 1950s.

He then told his parents the painting might just be of value.

Last month, a graphologists determined that the signature is indeed that of Pablo Picasso.

A group of art historians and restorers have vouched for the painting's authenticity and appraised it at around $6 million. Meanwhile, Lo Rosso is awaiting certification from the Picasso Foundation.

If it's indeed legit, Lo Rosso says his family will auction it off in accordance with the wishes of his father who died in 2021.

Previously:
• Woman finds rare Picasso plates at thrift store, cashes in
• Picasso painting discovered in a Maine closet after 50 years