11/09/2025
A new Picasso painting was found in Italy. The owners didn’t know for more than 50 years that there was a masterpiece in their living room.
The found painting is a portrait of the French artist Dora Maar, the mistress and muse of the great cubist.
It was not difficult to recognise the masterpiece, the work has an original signature of the author - it's just that the painting was hanging in the house of a person who was not interested in the history of art.
In 1962, the antique dealer Luigi Lo Rosso, while disassembling the junk in the basement of an abandoned house on the island of Capri, found a rolled canvas. Taking the painting to his home in Pompeii, he placed it
In a cheap frame and, despite his wife's protests, hung it in the dining room.
"Ugly Smear" hung on the wall for several decades until Lo Rosso's son Andrea got an encyclopedia of art history and it became obvious that
The painting is suspiciously similar to Pablo Picasso's painting.
The Picasso Foundation in Malaga showed no interest in Andrea's letters, immediately deciding that it was a fraud. According to the Foundation's staff, they receive hundreds of reports every day about the artist's unknown masterpieces found.
Many years later, the family sought advice from experts, who after a series of studies confirmed that the portrait was painted by Picasso himself. The painting was valued at 6 million euros.
Cynthia Altieri, a professional graphologist, checked the author's signature for several months to make sure of its authenticity: after all, the work of such an artist could easily be faked.
Andrea Lo Rosso assures him that he doesn't care so much about money: most of all he wanted to know the truth all his life.
Several times the mother, who considered the portrait an ugliness, rushed to throw away the painting - and the mystery could remain unsolved.
"Father always collected all kinds of junk. He found the painting before I was born, and he didn't even want to hear that it could have any value - he wasn't particularly interested in art"
Unfortunately, Luigi died a long time ago without knowing that he had found the treasure. His son Andrea is now 60, and he is happy that he was finally able to get to the truth.
Experts dated the portrait between 1930 and 1936. There are no questions about how the painting could end up on Capri - Picasso often visited the island. Their affair with Dora Maar lasted from 1936 to 1945
