Lyon (AFP)

The former electrician Pablo Picasso and his wife, condemned twice for the concealment of 271 works of the artist stored for forty years in their garage, will appear again Tuesday before the Court of Appeal of Lyon.

Pierre and Danielle Le Guennec had obtained in cassation the cancellation of their condemnation on appeal from December 2016 to two years of suspended sentence on the grounds that the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) n had not shown that the works "came from a theft".

After having argued, during the trial at first instance before the court of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes), that the 271 works, dated from 1900 to 1932, were a gift offered in 1971 or 1972 by Pablo Picasso for whom the electrician had worked between 1970 and 1973, in thanks for his devotion, the former electrician had changed version before the Court of Appeal.

He then claimed that it was a gift from his widow Jacqueline after the master's death in 1973, "perhaps" to remove them from the estate inventory.

A few months after the death of Picasso, "she asked me to kindly put in my house in reserve trash bags". According to him, there were between 15 and 17. Later, she would have asked him to return them, except one for which she would have said "Keep it, it's for you", had told Mr. Le Guennec to bar.

180 of these works, drawings, lithographs and collages unsigned or inventoried at the time of the painter's death, had resurfaced when Mr. Le Guennec had introduced himself to the son of the artist, Claude Ruiz-Picasso to have them authenticate , with a notebook of 91 sketches, all dating from 1900 to 1932. The heirs had immediately complained.

"With the spouses Le Guennec, it is the farandole of the lies, a lie drives the other", blasted the lawyer of Mr. Ruiz-Picasso, Jean-Jacques Neuer, which sees in the couple "the mule" d a network aimed at carrying out "a laundering operation of stolen works".

On the eve of this new trial, the couple's lawyer, Antoine Vey, had not responded to AFP's solicitations.

© 2019 AFP