Long-Missing Degas Painting Will Return to France

Stolen Degas painting to be sent home to France: US

NEW YORK (AFP) – An Edgar Degas painting stolen nearly 30 years ago from a museum in France will be returned by the US government, which recovered the rare artwork shortly before it was to be sold at auction, officials said Thursday.

The painting, "Blanchisseuses souffrant des dents," was stolen from a French museum in 1973 and resurfaced recently when investigators discovered that it was set for auction at Sothesby's in New York.

Degas' Impressionist portrait of a laundrywoman holding her face in pain from an aching tooth was stolen in December 1973 from the Malraux Museum in Le Havre, Normandy.

The artwork, painted by Degas between 1870-72, had been on loan from the Paris government to the museum, which was destroyed in World War II, in honor of its reconstruction.

The Sothesby catalogue for the November 3, 2010 auction had estimated the painting's sale price to be between 350,000 dollars and 450,000 dollars.

"The return of this masterpiece to the French government reflects our commitment to ensure the return of stolen artwork and cultural patrimony," said Loretta Lynch, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement.

Lynch said Sothesby's promptly cooperated with law enforcement and pulled the piece from the auction block once it learned that it had a purloined artwork in its possession.

US customs officials and authorities from INTERPOL were also involved in the recovery of the painting, officials said.

This article is from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101202/ennew_afp/entertainmentusfranceartcrime_20101202171620

What The New Picasso Trove Could Mean

Picasso haul: analysis

Whether they had been found in an attic in Pinner or in a bank vault in Switzerland, the discovery of 271 unknown works by Pablo Picasso would count as one of the most important cultural events of the year.

 

But to learn that the collection contains a watercolour from Picasso’s blue period, portraits of his first wife Olga, and no less than nine paintings from the cubist period beggars belief.

That’s because the work of few artists in history has been as documented, photographed, described and catalogued as relentlessly as Picasso’s. In 1932, for example, Christian Zervos published the first volume of his monumental 33 volume catalogue raisonee of Picasso’s work, while his biographer John Richardson is at work on the fourth volume of his life.

As for their worth, even a napkin on which the great man doodled could be worth tens of thousands of pounds but highly finished pictures from the cubist period are so rare that the estimate quoted in Liberation of 40 million euros for all nine would be far too low.

But before we all get too excited, a word of caution: though I have only seen images of three works in the collection, none looked to be of exceptional importance.

One was clearly a painted fragment or study of a hand, and the others unfinished cubist collages. If they are indeed entirely by Picasso (and this story will only going to get interesting when their authenticity is confirmed) none of the works I’ve seen will end up in a museum.

But then, Picasso’s life is intimately intertwined with his work in a way that is true of few other artists.

In his relationship with women, for example, his pictures reflect his changing feelings, from the joy of sensual discovery at the beginning to the cruel dismissal at the end.

Art historians and biographers will therefore be anxious to mine those portraits and notebooks for what they may be able to tell us about his love for Fernande, his hatred of Olga, his passion for Marie Therese, fury with Francoise and devotion to Jacqueline.

This article is from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8168502/Picasso-haul-analysis.html

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• Picasso 'treasure trove' revealed (bbc.co.uk)

French Electrician Reveals Trove Of Hundreds Of Picassos

Picasso's electrician reveals artist's 'treasure trove'

A retired electrician in southern France who worked for Pablo Picasso says he has hundreds of previously unknown works by the artist.



The treasure trove of 271 pieces includes lithographs, cubist paintings, notebooks and a watercolour and is said to be worth about 60m euros (£50.6m).

Pierre Le Guennec, 71, reportedly says Picasso gave him the works as gifts.

But the estate's administrators have filed a case for alleged illegal receipt of the works of art.

According to French newspaper Liberation, the lost Picassos include a watercolour from his Blue Period. Experts say the nine cubist works in Mr Le Guennec's possession are worth 40m euros alone.

Legal battle

The electrician installed burglar alarm systems at Picasso's numerous houses in France, including his villa in Cannes, during the three years before the artist died in 1973.

In September, Mr Le Guennec approached the artist's estate in an attempt to get the canvases authenticated by Picasso's son, Claude.

But Claude Picasso dismissed Mr Le Guennec's explanation about how he came into possession of the art works.

He said his father would never have given so many works to a single person.

"To give away such a large quantity, that's unheard of. It doesn't add up," he told Liberation. "It was a part of his life."

Once the works were authenticated, the family contacted France's specialist art police who have reportedly already raided Mr Le Guennec's home on the Cote d'Azur, confiscating the paintings and interviewing him under caution.

This article is from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11864660