Previously unknown Picasso works found: what treasures are in your garage?

I’m fascinated by the story of the retired French electrician who has reportedly been storing a treasure-trove of works by Picasso in a box in his garage. Pierre Le Guennec claims the artist gave him 271 pieces as a gift after Le Guennec worked on  Picasso’s homes in the south of France back in the early 1970s.

The cache, which is estimated to be worth at least $80 million, includes lithographs, cubist paintings, notebooks and a watercolor. Administrators of Picasso’s estate have filed a case for alleged illegal receipt of the art. The artist’s son, who has vouched for the works’ authenticity, claims his father never would have handed off such a collection and maintains he always signed and dated works given as gifts.

It will be an interesting story in the coming weeks in months. In the meantime, if you want additional information about the artist and his work, visit the Online Picasso Project. That digital repository, the creation Dr. Enrique Mallen a professor at Sam Houston State University in Texas, provides visitors with access to close to 20,000 catalogued artworks (including jpeg images of the pieces) as well as access to thousands of biographic entries, archived articles, artwork notes, artwork commentaries and other material.

The image above left of Picasso was taken by American photographer Irving Penn in 1957 and comes from the National Gallery of Art. The image at right shows one of the newly-discovered Picasso works and comes from the Associated Press.