• Theft: The electrician who hid 271 'Picassos' now says that the painter's widow gave them away
  • Judgment: They confirm the conviction to the Picasso electrician who hid 271 of his works

French justice on Tuesday confirmed the final sentence to two years in prison exempt from compliance by Frenchman Pierre Le Guennec, the electrician of painter Pablo Picasso, and his wife Danielle for having hidden for 27 years 271 works of the artist from Malaga in a garage.

These French retirees assured during the trial that the painter's widow had given them the works after the artist died. In this valuable lot of works of art there were six oil paintings, nine cubist collages and 28 lithographs painted by Picasso between 1900 and 1930 and that were not inventoried when the painter died.

The Lyon Court of Appeal confirmed the 2015 judgment of the Grasse Court that had first sentenced the couple to two years in jail for holding works of the Guernica painter and the Misses of Avignon. The retirees were not present when the sentence was read.

The sentence puts an end to a long judicial battle between this couple of French retirees and the heirs of the painter. "It is the triumph of the truth and the end of a mystification," said Jean-Jacques Neuer, lawyer of Claude Picasso, son of the painter and brother of Paloma Picasso, after knowing the sentence, according to the AFP agency.

The electrician, 80, and his wife, 70, continue to argue that they are innocent. He assures that the works were "a magnificent gift" of Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's last wife, for his services. In full fight for the painter's inheritance, "Madame" (lady, in French), as they call Picasso's widow, would have asked them to keep some of the artist's belongings. When they were returned, I would have told them to keep those drawings that they hid in their garage, according to the version they are still holding.

At the beginning of the dispute, Pierre and Danielle Le Guennec had given another version of the facts. They said the donation had been made when the painter was still alive and with his consent. Picasso would have given them the paintings for their loyal service and the widow would have given them to them after the painter's death in 1973.

For four decades, the couple kept their treasure secret, valued between 60 and 80 million euros, according to the French press. The existence of this work came to light in 2010 when the electrician asked Claude Picasso to authenticate a notebook containing 91 sketches of his father. These drawings were part of the works that this couple of French retirees had hidden in their garage. If they wanted to sell Picasso's works in the art market, the Le Guennec needed a certificate that they were authentic.

After the unexpected discovery of these works, whose existence was unknown until then, Picasso's heirs filed a complaint not for theft, because the crime had already been prescribed, but for illegal possession and concealment. French justice opened an investigation. The heirs doubted that the painter had made that valuable gift to the electrician.

Pierre and Danielle Le Guennec were convicted in the first instance in 2015 and in Appeal in 2016. The two-year prison sentence was overturned in 2018 by the French Court of Cassation, considering that the court that had tried the case initially failed to prove that Picasso's works that this retired couple had in their garage "came from a robbery", which forced them to repeat the trial.

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