The couple for years squirreled away the staggering trove — which is believed to be authentic, but whose origin is unclear — in their garage on the French Riviera, said Picasso Administration lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer. The cache, dating from the artist’s most creative period from 1900 to 1932, includes lithographs, portraits, watercolors, and sketches — plus nine Cubist collages said to be worth €40 million alone, according to French daily Liberation, which first reported Monday on the discovery.
Pierre Le Guennec, a 71-year-old former electrician who once worked for Picasso, and his wife showed many of the works to Picasso’s son Claude and other estate administrators in Paris in September seeking to have the works certified as authentic, the lawyer said. Shortly after that meeting, Neuer filed suit on behalf of Picasso’s heirs for alleged illegal receipt of the works — and police investigators are looking into how Le Guennec and his wife came by the pictures.
The couple said that they were given the works by Picasso and his wife, Jacqueline, according to a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way.
