According to Pierre Le Guennec’s story, he came into possession of over two hundred of Pablo Picassos’ sketches, water colors, lithographs and portraits when the artist’s second wife gave them to Guennec as a gift. At the time, Guennec was working as an electrician and added burglar alarms to one of Picasso’s residences. Police and authenticators are finding this story hard to believe and charged Guennec with illegal receipt of the art. Picasso’s son does admit that his father was well known for his generosity but that Pablo would dedicate his gifts to the recipient.
Art Collection
Many people are on the side of Pierre Le Guennec and his wife and feel that the charges are unfair. At first it was thought that the works may be fakes, but authenticators completely disproved that. They are definitely originals and worth a lot of money. The son of Picasso is the one that turned in Guennec and had him charged with theft of the sketches. The Guennec’s still maintain that they were given to the electrician as a gift and nothing more. The elderly couple were putting their affairs in order and wanted to make certain that this wonderful gift was accounted for and given to their children at their passing.
Fine Art
Now estimated at around $100 million dollars, with 9 of the works totaling over 30 million on their own. None of the works have ever been seen let alone cataloged. Many of the people that were able to view the works were shocked at the immense size of the collection. The elderly couple did not intend to sell the works, but did want to come forward with them for the authentication so that their children would not have to go through any problems when the works were included in the Guennec estate.
It isn’t any wonder that there is so much controversy surrounding this immense find. Picasso’s works rank very high amongst the works of masters that are stolen by art thieves. The assumption that the works were stolen is obviously something that would be first on the mind of anyone, however, the Guennec’s seem to be honest and their story makes sense. They are also very adamant that the master regarded Mr. Guennec very highly and that when Jacqueline Roque gave him the trunk full of works that everything was on the up and up. Only time will tell with this case and perhaps Mr. Guennec will be vindicated and be able to leave a considerable estate to his heirs.
Picasso’s Artworks
This will be quite a difficult case to prove as the only witnesses to the gift giving are now deceased. How the police with determine it as a theft is going to be highly difficult. It is nice to know that there were so many more works of Picasso to add to the known works. There are over 70,000 artworks in existence currently and adding nearly 300 more is very exciting despite the terrible circumstances of their discovery.
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