Couple avoid jail for Picasso collection

Electrician had 271 of artist’s pieces in garage

AIX- EN- PROVENCE // A French court yesterday upheld the two- year suspended sentences of Pablo Picasso’s former electrician and his wife, who kept 271 of his artworks in their garage for nearly 40 years. Pierre Le Guennec and his wife were convicted last year of possessing stolen goods for hiding the works from Picasso’s heirs.

At his original trial, Le Guennec, who is in his late seventies, claimed that Picasso had presented him with the artworks towards the end of his life to reward him for his loyal service.

But he later changed his account, telling the appeal court that the works were part of a huge collection of art that Picasso’s widow asked him to conceal after the artist’s death in 1973.

He claimed that Jacqueline Picasso later retrieved most of the works but left him a bag with 180 single pieces and a notebook with 91 drawings as a gift.

The value of the collection has not been assessed. It includes drawings of women and horses, nine cubist collages from the time Picasso was working with French artist Georges Braque and a work from his “blue period”.

French authorities seized them after Le Guennec presented them to Picasso’s son Claude Ruiz-Picasso in 2010 in an attempt to have them authenticated.

Mr Ruiz-Picasso, who represents the artist’s six heirs, pressed charges.