A 71-year-old retired electrician is at the centre of a legal battle after coming forward with 271 hitherto unknown paintings by Pablo Picasso, a French newspaper reported on Monday.
Experts who have examined the collection have estimated it could be worth some $80 million, Liberation reported.
Pierre Le Guennec wrote to Claude Picasso, the artist’s son and the administrator of his estate, in a bid to get the canvases authenticated, and the two finally met in September.
Le Guennec said he had worked installing alarm systems at a number of Picasso’s residences, including a villa in Cannes in the south of France, during the last three years of Picasso’s life. He died in 1973. —AFP