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The heirs of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) have challenged the ownership of some 271 of his works purportedly offered to a man working as an electrician in his properties in Southern France during the last three years of his life, the daily “Liberation” revealed on November 29, 2010.

Claude Picasso, the heir in charge of the authentication of works by his famed father was  more than baffled when Pierre Le Guennec, a retired electrician, first submitted him 175 works dating from 1900 to 1932 since they had never been listed in the catalogue raisonné of the artist nor in his succession.

Valued at some 80 million dollars, the works included rare drawings, watercolours and paintings considered as magnificent testimonies of Picasso's prolific career. On seeing them, Claude Picasso could not believe that the artist had been so utterly generous towards his electrician.

In addition, he wondered why Le Guennec had waited for so long to try to have this major rediscovery authenticated, a fact which raised suspicion about its genuine provenance to finally entice him to lodge a complaint and alert police now in the process of investigating a possible theft.

Among the works he examined were nine rare Cubist collages dating from 1912 worth over 50 million dollars –many of these were eventually lost during the flooding of Picasso's studio in Montrouge or when he moved to other places- as well as a watercolour executed around 1901, studies of hands and of the Three Graces painted on canvas, 30 lengravings realized in 1920, some rare landscapes and 200 drawings notably representing portraits of his wife Olga.

Claude Picasso has been convinced that his father, who was sometimes used to offer small drawings to people he liked, would have never given such important works to a man, then aged 31, who was simply employed to do occasional repairs in his various properties- in  Cannes,Vauvenargues and Mougins- in Southern France.

Picasso had stored them at his Cannes villa named “La Californie” after 1955 when all his works remained until his death in 1973. For this reason, the six heirs have lodged a complaint for theft on September 23, 2010 which resulted in the seizure of the collection by police investigators.

During questioning, Pierre Le Guennec told police he could not remember exactly if the collection had been offered to him by Picasso or by his wife Jacqueline deceased in 1986, a story the heirs of the artist found hard to believe. According to their counsel, Le Guennec presumably banked on the fact that charges for a theft are abandoned after a legal period of 30 years. For this reason the complaint lodged by the Picasso heirs has been for receiving stolen works of art, a  permanent crime in that case. Still, the judges will have to ascertain the proof of a theft…