A painting found in a cellar 62 years ago may be an original Pablo Picasso worth millions. The artwork was discovered in a basement in Capri, Italy by junk dealer Luigi Lo Rosso in 1962. Despite having Picasso’s signature on it, the oil painting sat in the Lo Rosso home for decades—until now.
“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing,” Luigi’s son, Andrea Lo Rosso told the Guardian. “He found the painting before I was even born and didn’t have a clue who Picasso was. He wasn’t a very cultured person. While reading about Picasso’s works in the encyclopedia I would look up at the painting and compare it to his signature. I kept telling my father it was similar, but he didn’t understand. But as I grew up, I kept wondering.”
In the 1980s, while looking through an art history textbook, Andrea came across Picasso’s Buste de femme Dora Maar, which looked similar to the image hung on the wall of his family’s home, per CNN. Dora Maar was a French Surrealist who was romantically tied to Picasso.
The artwork was most likely created between 1930 and 1936, according to the Guardian. Art historians have told the family that the painting isn’t authentic, but have still offered to purchase it. This made the family suspicious, so instead of selling it, they registered the painting with Italy’s patrimony police.
Years after Andrea’s interest in the painting, Cinzia Altieri, a graphologist at the Arcadia Foundation, examined the artwork and confirmed that it is legitimate—potentially worth around $6.6 million. “There is no doubt that the signature is his,” Altieri told Italian media, per CNN. “There was no evidence to demonstrate its apocryphal nature.”
The Lo Rosso family will also seek verification of the painting’s authenticity from the experts at the Picasso Foundation. While Andrea says his family isn’t interested in making money from the painting, he’s curious to know what experts at the foundation will say. “We were just a normal family, and the aim has always been to establish the truth,” he told the Guardian.