Junk dealer’s wife hated this ‘terrible’ painting – turns out it was a $6m Picasso

A man discovered an old painting in his home that turned out to be a Pablo Picasso worth around $6.6m (£5m) – hidden away for decades because his mother hated it.

Andrea Lo Rosso said his father Luigi, who worked as a scrap dealer, was cleaning out a cellar in a house in Capri, Italy, in 1962 when he came across a piece of the artwork.

“My father was from Capri and collected rubbish to sell for next to nothing,” said Lo Rosso’s son Andrea, now 60.

But despite the distinctive signature in the upper left corner, Lo Rosso somehow failed to realize that the Spanish painter was famous.

“He found the painting before I was born and he had no idea who Picasso was,” he said. He was not a very cultured person.”

“My mother didn’t want to hold it, she kept saying it was terrible,” he added.

Although Luigi’s wife found the painting horrifying, he placed it in a free frame and displayed it on the living room wall of his home in Pompeii and kept it for decades.

Andrea suspected that it was a real Picasso, but after many years, he finally decided to work on verifying the signature of the Spanish painter.

“While reading about Picasso’s works in the encyclopedia, I looked up at the painting and compared it to his signature. I kept telling my dad it was similar, but he didn’t see it,” Andrea shared.

He added: “As I grew up, I kept asking myself.”

Enlisting the help and guidance of several local experts, including renowned art detective Maurizio Seracini, the family endured several months of investigation into the painting – until finally graphologist Cinzia Altieri, a member of the Arcadia Foundation’s scientific committee, confirmed that the signature was Picasso’s.

She told the family there was “no doubt the signature is his” and that it was an original Picasso painting, according to the Guardian.

The artwork is believed to have been painted between 1930 and 1936 and is a portrait of Picasso’s mistress, the French photographer and painter Dora Maar, who was associated with the painter until their separation in 1945.

Before Picasso died in 1973, he produced over 14,000 works.

Although Luigi died before the painting could be authenticated, Andrea has promised to keep trying to do so.

The Picasso Foundation in Malaga, Spain, will have the final say on the painting’s authenticity, but until then, it is currently in a vault in Milan.

“I’m curious to know what they say,” Lo Rosso told the Guardian. “We were just a normal family and the goal was always to find out the truth. We are not interested in making money from it.”