A Picasso in the pool

Cleaning the swimming pool is seldom a popular task, but in the case of the Villa El Martinete near Marbella it is trickier than most. The villa has a Picasso at the bottom of the pool. The painter was a friend of the owner of the house, Antonio Ruiz Soler, who went by the name of El Bailarín. His speciality was an austere and soulful kind of flamenco including the martinete, once danced solely to the accompaniment of blacksmiths’ hammers. The words were about suffering and imprisonment, but the dances brought El Bailarín and his raven-haired artistic partner Rosario fame and fortune. When Picasso was staying in 1961 he executed a swirly figure on the bottom of the pool and signed it in huge letters. The villa is on the market now and for £13 million might be yours, with the Picasso thrown in.