Original Picasso Found in Cellar Declared Authentic by Italian Experts

In a twist of fate, a painting once dismissed as “horrible” by its owner’s wife has been confirmed by Italian art experts as an original work by Pablo Picasso. The painting, a portrait of Dora Maar—Picasso’s lover and muse—was found in 1962 by Luigi Lo Rosso, a junk dealer from Capri, while he was clearing out a cellar in a house on the island. He took the rolled-up canvas back to his home in Pompeii, where it was displayed in a cheap frame in the family’s living room for decades.

The painting, which experts now believe to be a distorted image of Dora Maar, bears Picasso’s distinctive signature in the top left-hand corner. However, Lo Rosso, unaware of the artist’s fame, paid little attention to the signature and simply viewed the artwork as another item picked up during his junk collection rounds. “My father wasn’t a very cultured person,” said his son, Andrea Lo Rosso. “He didn’t have a clue who Picasso was.”

For years, the painting was a mundane fixture in the Lo Rosso household. It wasn’t until Andrea, as a teenager, received an art encyclopedia from his aunt that the family began to realize the potential significance of the portrait. “I would look at the painting and compare it to Picasso’s works in the book. I kept telling my father it was similar, but he didn’t understand,” Andrea recalled. As his curiosity grew, Andrea began to suspect that the painting could be an original Picasso.

Despite his growing suspicion, it wasn’t until many years later that the family sought professional advice. After decades of speculation, the Lo Rosso family contacted a team of experts, including renowned art detective Maurizio Seracini. The investigation took years, with numerous examinations being conducted on the canvas. Eventually, Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist and member of the scientific committee of the Arcadia Foundation, was brought in to study the signature.

Altieri spent months comparing the signature on the painting with those found on Picasso’s original works. “There is no doubt that the signature is his,” Altieri told *The Guardian*. “After all the other examinations of the painting were done, I was given the job of studying the signature. There was no evidence suggesting it was false.” With this confirmation, the painting’s value has been estimated at €6 million (£5 million).

Picasso’s Buste de femme (Dora Maar)

The painting, now stashed in a vault in Milan, is strikingly similar to Picasso’s *Buste de femme (Dora Maar)*, a well-known 1938 portrait of Maar. Experts believe the Capri painting was likely created between 1930 and 1936, during one of Picasso’s visits to the island. The original *Buste de femme* was stolen from a Saudi sheikh’s yacht in 1999 and later recovered in 2019. 

Luca Marcante, president of the Arcadia Foundation, has suggested the possibility of two versions of the *Buste de femme*. “They could both be originals,” Marcante told *Il Giorno* newspaper. “They are probably two portraits, not exactly the same, of the same subject painted by Picasso at two different times. One thing is for sure: the one found in Capri and now kept in a vault in Milan is authentic.”

Andrea Lo Rosso, now 60, has continued his father’s quest to authenticate the painting. “We were just a normal family, and the aim has always been to establish the truth,” he said. “We’re not interested in making money out of it.”

Despite multiple attempts to contact the Picasso Foundation in Málaga, the family has yet to receive an official response. The foundation, which receives hundreds of claims each day from people who believe they possess original Picassos, has so far declined to examine the Lo Rosso painting, dismissing the claims as unfounded.

The final word on the painting’s authenticity rests with the Picasso Foundation, but the Lo Rosso family remains hopeful. “I am curious to know what they say,” Andrea remarked, as the portrait of Dora Maar awaits its official verdict in a Milan vault.