Posted on 11/30/2010 1:08:08 PM PST by Ron C.
PARIS — Pablo Picasso gave them as a gift.
So said Danielle Le Guennec, 68, explaining how she and her husband came to possess a box full of 271 previously unknown sketches, paintings and collages by one of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists.
“It was very straightforward,” she said in a telephone interview on Monday, after the French newspaper Libération reported the find. Her husband, Pierre Le Guennec, 71, had worked as an electrician in three of Picasso’s homes on the French Riviera in the early 1970s.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I do that ( drawing on napkins , I mean).
That was probably how he was paid.
Likely because they didn't think they were worth anything - particularly 30 years ago! Then even after the name Picasso became more or less 'famous' - to them, they likely still thought that most of that stuff wasn't particularly exciting. (Certainly what I've seen of it, I wouldn't pay more than five bucks for any of it, if I didn't know who had created it.)
I think only recently, with the medical expenses they have faced, that they began to look at what they had to sell, and ran across that box - and thought then, 'Hey, maybe we might be able to get a bit of money from some of this.' Hence, the electrician taking some of it out and seeking information about its value.
I think the world should be contacting that greedy Foundation, telling them to, "KEEP YOUR GREEDY PAWS OFF THE ELECTRICIANS INCOME - HE EARNED IT!"
I say, to hell with that greedy Foundation - they have no proof whatsoever that he stole a single one of the items that he has kept for decades.
Seems that it is a 'Foundation' - rather than any member of his family. BUT, hey - I don't know... perhaps some member of this extended family gets part of any sale.
And... YES - this whole thing is motivated by GREED - that of the 'elite' within the art-world. I just hope the common man beats the snot out of them in this case.
Exactly! I remember VERY WELL, 8 or 9 years ago a little company in Florida began making TOP QUALITY diamonds - so that they would be cheaper for everyone. I too remember well thinking - THIS won't last long... and it did not.
It didn't take DeBeers more than about three months to buy that invention, pay off the inventor and his companions in business and bury the whole thing.
The documentation of that fact may make this old electrician a wealthy man. It is just too bad that he may well die before that takes place.
In my view, NONE of that man's work is 'worthy' of anything but ridicule. Likewise, anyone that tries to justify its worth is just as ridiculous - but there are a huge number of ridiculous people on this earth.
Don’t mess with my fellow electrician’s! It might be a shocking experience!
Harold’s Electric Co.
Yorktown, VA
LOL - yup, LOTS of kids do better work than Picasso ever did!
So much for 'great artistry.'
Yep... some ‘pay’ - but, I’ve been ‘paid’ in the same fashion, and I think I only ‘framed’ one such ‘payment’ - and it too was done on a napkin. Trouble is, few in the public would know the artist, or care to know about him.
LOL - yeppers... could be a sparkin’ smokin’ mess!
And maybe he only started signing to the giftees at a later point in life. Pretty incredible if this was done legitimately. I don’t think I could have kept my mouth shut for such a long time.
Priceless! Wait, is that the same as worthless?
Hey, that thing looks like a cartoon insulting to the Prophet!
Don’t knock garage sales. A lot of good art has been found at them.
My late uncle was an internationally known art collector and critic, owning several very early and good Blue Period Picassos, plus a bronze-bust head number 6 of 9 of his mistress model. One of the 9 was exhibited at the East Gallery/National Museum of Art in DC about 6 years ago. I compared the exhibit bust with a picture I had of my uncle’s. Kissing cousins!
He also found a Rembrandt print in a “poster” store, and a Jackson-Pollock painting being used to prop open a door at an outdoor theater. Being a friend of Pollock and his wife, he had the painting restored and gave it to Pollock’s widow for only the price of restoration. I guess today it might be worth $100,000 or more, but my uncle was an honorable man and his friendship with the Pollocks was worth much more than selling this painting for a profit.
If only it paid as well as when Picasso did it!
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