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Pablo Picasso almost never stopped creating, leaving thousands of drawings, paintings and sculptures that lure crowds to museums and mansions worldwide. Now, a retired electrician says that 271 of the master's creations have been sitting for decades in his garage.
Picasso's heirs are claiming theft, the art world is savoring what appears to be an authentic find and the workman, who installed burglar alarms for Picasso, is defending what he calls a gift from the most renowned artist of the 20th century.
Picasso's son and other heirs say they were approached by electrician Pierre Le Guennec in September to authenticate the undocumented art from Picasso's signature Cubist period.
Instead, they filed a suit for illegal possession of the works - all but alleging theft by a man not known to be among the artist's friends. Police raided the electrician's French Riviera home last month, questioned him and his wife, and confiscated the disputed artworks.
Le Guennec and his wife say Picasso's second wife gave them a trunk full of art that they kept virtually untouched until they decided to put their affairs in order for their children. The Picasso estate describes that account as ridiculous.
"When Picasso made just a little drawing on a metro ticket, he would keep it," said Jean-Jacques Neuer, a lawyer for Picasso's estate. "To think he could have given 271 works of art to somebody who isn't even known among his friends is, of course, absurd."
The pieces, which include lithographs, portraits, a watercolor and sketches, were created between 1900 and 1932, an intensely creative period for Picasso after he moved from Barcelona to Paris.
Among them are a richly colored hand study; a sketch of his first wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, resting an elbow in a seated pose; and a collage of a pipe and bottle.
The collage and eight others in the stash are worth 40 million euros ($52 million) on their own, Picasso's estate says. All of the art is now held by the French agency charged with battling illegal traffic in cultural items.
Le Guennec, 71, says he worked at three of Picasso's properties in southern France: A Cannes villa, a chateau in Vauvenarges and a farmhouse in Mougins, the town where Picasso died in 1973. The French daily Liberation, which broke the story on Monday, said Le Guennec had installed a security alarm system for Picasso at the farmhouse.
Picasso's son Claude, quoted in Liberation, noted that his father was known for his generosity, but that he always dedicated, dated and signed his gifts, as he knew that some recipients might try to sell the works one day. The estate administrators, who pored over the works for about three hours in September, considered that the works might be fakes. But they later ruled that out.
Questions:
1. Whose artworks are in the news?
2. Who is claiming to have a stash of the artist’s works?
3. How did he get them?
Answers:
1. Pablo Picasso.
2. A retired electrician says that 271 of the master's creations have been sitting for decades in his garage.
3. Pierre Le Guennec says the artist's second wife gave them a trunk full of art. The pieces, which include lithographs, portraits, a watercolor and sketches, were created between 1900 and 1932.
（中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 Helen 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.
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